My Damned Soul Needs Fire, My Damsel Breaths Fire
by SpeedDemon315
Summary: At first, their dialogues were nothing but bouts of wordplay, verbal swords hacking convulsively at each other. Yet as time worn on, they sought out each other’s company because only they knew the other straight to the core. /ValterxSelena\
1. C: Nascence of a Fortuitous Encounter

**My Damned Soul Needs Fire, My Damsel Breaths Fire**

**Summary: **(Support conversations between Valter and Selena) At first, their dialogues were nothing but bouts of wordplay, verbal swords hacking convulsively at each other. Yet as time worn on, they sought out each other's company because only they knew the other straight to the core. (ValterxSelena)

**Support C: **_Nascence of a Fortuitous Encounter _

Text:

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

'_Wyvern Speech'_

**Flashback**

Poems/Sonnets:

"Tamerlane" by Edgar Allen Poe

"The War Song of Dinas Vawr" by Thomas Love Peacock

"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

****

**Disclaimer: Heretofore, the Sacred Stones do not and will not belong to me hence that mean neither does Selena and Valter. I'm just playing around with them. Also, the title of this story are lyrics to "My Damsel: A Confession To An Adversary" by Evans Blue (awesome band, by the way) thus the song isn't mine to claim. Savvy? Let's get the show on road, then. **

* * *

"_I spoke to her of power and pride_

_But mystically–in such a guise _

_That she might deem it nought beside_

_That moment's converse; in her eyes_

_I read, perhaps too carelessly, _

_A mingled feeling with my own–_

_The flush on her bright cheek, to me_

_Seem'd to become a queenly throne_

_Too well that I should let it be_

_Light in the wilderness alone."_

_**-Tamerlane**_, Edgar Allen Poe

* * *

The foreboding cacophony of the dying and the fallen reverberated through the sanguinary, sweeping plains of dazzling emerald and pale sage, only to be stained with captivating ruby and vivid vermillion. The once Copenhagen blue sky had already disappeared with the ominous appearance of the dusky, smoky cumulonimbus clouds drifting definitively into view, eclipsing the once blazing and shining sun and overcastting the entire battle ground in a foreboding, dreary shadow.

Thunder emanating from her hand, Selena swiftly hurled the cracking, electrical bolt onto her foe with ease, ignoring her opponent's strident shriek of agony. The malodor of frizzled, charred flesh wafted repugnantly into her nostrils and she scrunched her face up to alleviate the foul odor from her olfaction.

Today was another typical day of battle, effacing those who dare revolt and attack Emperor Vigarde's decree of sovereignty after the invasion of Renais. Although she swore obstinate assiduity to her liege and reprimanded herself for questioning his motives, Selena could still not comprehend why her emperor would execute such a treacherous deed controversial to all his principles, verdicts, and vices.

_Nevertheless it is not my place to doubt or query his motives. His Imperial Majesty obviously has his reasons…that are astronomically obscure to me._

Sighing, the Fluorspar dug her heels into her mare and the obsidian steed cantered down the slope and into the thick of battle, with the blonde mage knight rapidly hurling pernicious vortexes of Elfire from both hands, scorching all the enemies in her path. Once she reduced her adversaries to convoluted heaps of charcoal, Selena scoured the volatile vicinity to detect if any Grado soldiers need her assistance or healing powers.

A blood-curdling screech attracted her attention and directed her eyes to the owner of such a bone-chilling scream of pain. The detrimental cry came from a middle-aged paladin clutching his abdomen in complete misery. In front of him stood an imposing, formidable wyvern knight, lance tip pointed squarely at his throat. Selena inched her horse closer to the ending battle, noticing the paladin was from Frelia and the victorious wyvern knight was her ally.

"M-Mercy…I b-beg of y-you! Mercy!" sobbed the Frelian paladin, round, bugling eyes beseeching his life to be spared. A dark, satanical chortled echoed from the wyvern knight's helmet, his smirk audible.

"Heh, you should have thought about that before engaging lances with the Moonstone."

With quicksilver speed, the wyvern knight speared his lance precisely into the paladin's Adam's apple, blood squirting out profusely from the grievous wound. The wyvern knight retracted his lance, carmine droplets sprinkling the adulterated, sordid ground with crimson stains. He then used his free hand to lift his helmet off from his head, his perspiring, pallid visage coming into clear view.

"Valter," Selena said, catching the savage wyvern general's attention.

"Selena," he acknowledged apathetically. Selena frowned at his indifferent, or rather aloof manner towards her appearance. Then again, Valter never proffered camaraderie towards anyone of the Imperial Six–especially to Glen. When instigated properly, those two men could be itching to rip each other's throats out. Yet, for some peculiar reason, he was equally distant towards her. There were even times she had received the impression that he disliked her…with a passion.

"How's the battle coming along?" she inquired professionally, hoping to engage a decent, cordial conversation with the arcane, intricate wyvern knight. Valter shrugged, tossing his helmet down to the ground.

"The onslaught is a bit tedious but other than that, everything is flowing along smoothly," he replied curtly, ebony eyes focused on the horizon instead of Selena. The way he carried himself, the way he shifted his body and spoke was almost supercilious, like he was deigning this discussion with her. To see whether or not her conjecture was accurate, Selene probed further.

"Any causalities?" Again, Valter shrugged, conveying he doesn't know and he simply did not _care._

"Been too caught up with more crucial matters on hand, such as killing my opponents, to worry myself over those trifles." Finally, he turned his head towards her, meeting her with his ambiguous gaze. "Now, if you excuse me, I have more substantial tasks to do."

_Why, that condescending, arrogant son of a harlot!_

"Like what? Needlessly slaughter a myriad of soldiers?" Selena retorted fervently, her temper getting the better of her. By the gods, she wouldn't let a man like Valter think he was above her and she wasn't worth the time to even _talk_ to!

At her scathing comment, Valter dangerously narrowed his onyx eyes at her. "Why, as a matter of fact, _yes_," he replied acridly, "Are you going to harp on me about my unorthodox habits?" To the Moonstone's surprise, Selena snorted derisively.

"Hardly. Albeit, I wouldn't call your bloodthirsty antics a 'habit'." Valter scowled menacingly, his caliginous pupils briefly scintillating with a wild glow prior to returning to its normal, inky hue.

"Did I ask for your opinion?" he growled, experiencing the turbulent urge to skewer the blonde mage knight where she stood. Her ripostes were so agitating!

This time, it was Selena's turn to shrug, nonplussed by his pernicious remark. "No, but you probably need it," she chaffed and a muscle in Valter's mouth twitch inscrutably.

"Careful, wench," he hissed ominously, "or you just might find my lance impaled in your stomach." Selena offered him a pointed glare, resolutely standing her ground.

"The only place your lance will be impaled in is up your rear, providing nothing is up there in first place." the Fluorspar responded icily yet inwardly, she was smirking triumphantly at her lashing wiles.

"Why you—" Valter's mood was foreboding, murderous. He was ready swing his lance around and teach her a lesson she was unlikely to forget when, much to his own astonishment, Selena nearly _leaped _out of her saddle and launched herself towards him.

"Watch out!" he heard her say as she brusquely tackled him, knocking him clean off his saddle. The whistling of an arrow whizzing at them snared Valter's attention and he intricately maneuvered his body around–with his arms tightly encircling Selena's waist–to evade the cloak-and-dagger shot. The arrow swiftly sailed by yet not before brutally grazing his left bicep prior to plunging rapidly into the ground. Hissing from the instant, intense pain, Valter glanced down at the blonde mage knight partially lying on top of him and in his arms. Recollecting her impulsive lung and warning cry, comprehension immediately dawned on him. In the midst of their squabbling, she had perceived the attack aimed directly at him and act upon her instincts to make sure the furtive assault failed completely. As much as the Moonstone was gratified to be to be alive, this valiant act also left him indebted…to _her_.

_And that's just what I need: The obligation that I owe my life to that hoydenish wench! _

"Valter, you're bleeding," Selena stated phlegmatically, "hold on, I believe I have a Healing staff somewhere in my gear."

"Don't bother, I can handle the pain. The injury is just a scratch, barely even hurts." Valter interjected, lying through his teeth. Of course the wound wasn't a "mere scratch"; the injury was unfortunately a massive and extremely deep slash. Valter cursed himself for not being more attentive and allowing this blasted woman's persiflage to distract him. _Of course, I can always blame my unsavory predicament and this ghastly wound on her…._

Selena arched an eyebrow at his dismissal, incredulity and utter amusement sparkling in her sapphire orbs. "To hell with it, Valter! I fathom that you're lying. Bah, men and their ludicrous pride."

The Moonstone glowered, rending his injured arm away from her grasp. "I told you I don't need your assistance. The wound will heal on its own."

"And get yourself killed because you couldn't wield your lance properly due to the incalculable pain this gash gave you? I think not." Snorting at Valter's tenacity, Selena snatched his damaged arm right back, evoking shots of pain up and down his arm. Despite the agony, he managed to keep a deadpanned expression on while she treated his bleeding slash–under his duress, of course.

The main reason why he was so staunchly opposed to Selena's tending of his laceration was simply due to the fact he never truly received such acts of kindness from any one, even in his younger years, before Duessel's demonic lance twisted him into the man he is today. He was used to being despised, cursed and railed upon, and among other iniquities executed out by society. Grado's society and system was the second factor that propelled his transformation after the incident with Duessel's accursed lance. Whispering rumors implied he could have possibly been cured yet the desertion of his peers, his emperor, and the majority of the Gradian society once they caught wind of his precarious, volatile condition is what wholly festered the mental and spiritual scars wrought by the djinn residing in Duessel the Obsidian's spear, fully engulfing Valter with the potency of darkness and bloodlust. Metamorphosing into a more beastly, licentious character, Valter subtly displayed the same perverse, convoluted traits exerted by the abysmal demon that cast its flagrant, tainted tenure over his being, permeating its penchants of blood, excess battling, and taste of the flesh within the Moonstone's very soul.

From this unsavory experience Valter learned was that the sole person you could trust and rely on was yourself and only you could ever be steadfastly loyal to yourself. Count on nobody and don't become attached to anyone because there _will_ be no one. Fidelity was a vestige to him and he actually got along quite successfully without. That is, until he encountered Selena Fluorspar and her intricate, peculiar ways.

"Stop fidgeting, Valter, you'll merely make the healing process harder and the pain more unbearable," Selena reprimanded lightly, provoking an eye roll from the Moonstone.

"I'm well aware of that. You can stop rebuking me like I'm a child."

"A rather unruly, irrational child I may add. Just hold still and I will have you fixed up in no time."

Valter sighed wearily yet capitulated to her pragmatic demands. "To cease your perpetual nagging, I'll comply." He visibly winced when Selena smacked him in the head, inducing a feral growl from his throat. Undaunted by Valter's portending grumble, Selena conjured up her Healing staff and poised the spherical orb over the wyvern knight's oozing abrasion.

"And yet all this 'nagging' is going to definitively save your life. Such gratitude." Selena answered caustically, a wry smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Valter scowled nefariously at her banter, aggravated by her constant supply of shrewd wiles and lashing, scalding repartees.

"Just heal me," he snarled, craving for this to be done and over with, this woman was seriously testing his limits!

"All right, all right, no need to be all testy." Before he could utter another acrimonious comeback, Selena severed her connection with the combative world conscious around her and solely fixated her focus unto Valter's grisly gash trekking alongside his bicep. As her mouth opened and commenced in reciting foreign, incomprehensible enunciations, an electric blue hue illuminated from the orb and encompassed the Moonstone's sprawled form and his injured arm. He watched with odd fascination as the fluctuating strings of bedazzling indigo knit together his torn muscles and flesh while adroitly effacing the blood as if it never existed. However, he eventually grew bored of watching the dancing blue radiance and shifted his focus into something else. Fortuitously, to his bemusement, his sable eyes happened to rest their meticulous gaze unto the mage knight who is currently healing him with strenuous perseverance.

He observed how her eyebrows furrowed together in deep concentration, the way her sapphire eyes blazed with fierce tenacity and resolve as she chanted the proper incantation. He scrutinized how her cheeks were flushed from exertion and the fervid weather that consumed the atmosphere, how her face was composed and phlegmatic as she exerted her dexterity and strength into completing this tedious task before her. Her sun-kissed features were soaked in sweat, grim, and blood from her opponents, which immensely appealed to him for he perceived that her robust, unyielding image was extraordinarily akin to a ferocious, august warrior goddess. His eyes followed the serene, languid sway of her blonde strands, brushing latently against her visage, in front of her lapis lazuli eyes, and in every direction the potent zephyr guided the tantalizing tresses of golden silk. Blonde tendrils coiled coquettishly around her ears and some locks obstructed Selena's peripheral vision as the vivacious gale blew gently all around. As he watched the blonde ringlets curl and flow so banteringly upon the Fluorspar's countenance, Valter suddenly possessed the intense, extemporaneous urge to reach out, brush the strands of hair away from her scintillating cerulean orbs, and delicately tuck them behind her ears. His fingers were itching to perform the sensual deed and his unwounded arm slowly lifted itself up to meet its destination and accomplish his abrupt longing. However, Valter rapidly squashed the impulse and the arm silently flopped to his side.

Disgusted and laden with self-contempt, the Moonstone was sorely agitated at the inexplicable act he just almost achieved. At a brief moment of vulnerability he had permitted himself to gaze at Selena Fluorspar in milder, softer light instead of imbued with his typical supercilious, resentful behavior towards her. Also, in that precise contingency,–much to his loathing–he nearly executed a sentimental feat. Displaying such an act of compassion, of tenderness, was most definitely not what he desired to evince, especially in front of the woman who was in the middle of healing him. If he committed such an affectionate action, the exploit would probably startle her thus severing her concentration and her healing progress will be all for naught. Hence, Valter really wanted his arm to be mended as soon as possible so he could return to the bloody, fervent skirmish and snuff out a few more fools and dolts who had enough gall to challenge him and esteem they would reign victorious against him, the notorious General Valter, Moonstone of Grado.

_Is it just me, or does the curing seems to be taking forever?_

"There. Your arm has been healed, good as new." Valter glanced down at his left arm, noticing instantly the absence of the gash. The only reminder of the vestige was the blood-stained, rended tear in his sleeve, revealing smooth, alabaster flesh.

"Not a scar to be seen," Valter noted lightly, respect subtly mingling in his rough timbre as his right pointer finger traced the area the injury once was at, "impressive, very impressive." he admitted grudgingly and Selena smiled wearily at his gruff compliment. Although she has only known Valter in short time span, she knew that response was a close semblance to a 'thank you'.

"You're welcome." she replied, a ghost of a grin gracing her lips.

* * *

He felt terrific to be in the air again, high up and against the wind. The roaring, vehement sensation of flight that sent one heart's pumping with vigor and esprit, adrenaline surging fervidly and wildly in his veins. The world below him seemed so small, so trivial compared to his divine panjandrum while he flew meticulously over his quarry fighting arduously against his army.

However, no matter how delightful and soothing the rushing, ongoing thrill of flying was for him, he still couldn't get the image of a certain blonde haired mage knight out of his mind. Hair like cascading waves of gold, sparkling, semi-precious stones for eyes, soft, fair skin that also possessed much strength and power, and a slashing, witty tongue with such luscious, beckoning lips—

Clenching his teeth in frustration, Valter tilted his head down and scanned the battle scene below. He tried focusing onto the stumbling enemy, fixing his sight unto a weak link surreptitiously secluded in the Frelian paramilitary. Unfortunately, his stratagems and aerial assault plans were abruptly interrupted when his calculating, intuitive eyes espied a flash of golden-yellow, ensnaring his attention pronto. Selena was viciously fending off two other mage knights with her magic, delivering them both a one-way ticket to death. As her adversaries shrieked agonizingly and crumpled pitifully from their horses, Valter smirked at Selena's decisive victory. The smirk then gradually began transforming into a half-smile as he curiously analyzed how she plunged into the next wave of onslaught, hurling and directing infernal, fulminating Elfire unto misfortunate fools. A snarl almost escaped his throat as he realized she had distracted him once more and he had almost _smiled_ at the prospect of her obliterating her foes with utmost ease.

His mount, Slivegio, turned his monstrous head around to face its rider, regalement twinkling in its feral, yellow ochre pupils. "**What**?" the Moonstone hissed menacingly and Slivegio answered with a snort, its intrigued expression almost humanistic. "Don't act you know something I don't, Slivegio." The said mount shook his head, his narrowing stare fixated on Valter's disgruntled form, his eyes saying: '_I think you can conceive what's this is about.'_

"What in the Demon King's name are you rambling about?" he demanded tersely, struggling to keep his temper at bay. A wyvern-esque smirk grazed Slivegio's muzzle, yellow orbs twinkling impishly.

'_I believe you know',_ he conveyed mischievously to the Moonstone who replied with a pointed glare. Dipping his long, spiny neck downward, the mount then motioned its head directly at Selena who just successfully dispatched a trio of knights. _'I'm referring to her.'_

Hands tightening on the reins, Valter deftly composed a refined, deadpanned mask on his face, concealing his agitated and truculent mood. "So? What about her?" Slivegio glanced back at him, carrying a perceiving, profound look.

'_Attracted to her much?'_ insinuated the ultramarine wyvern, flicking its forked tongue out in triumphant, _'Because you have been eyeing her the whole time ever since we took flight. Missing her already?'_

"Oh, stow it, you blasted creature. I certainly haven't been staring at her. _At all_." Valter finished firmly, the acidic warning tone in his voice blatantly signaling his mount to drop the topic posthaste. Of course, Slivegio was quite similar to his master inasmuch paid no heed to Valter's threat and resumed his antagonizing tangent.

'_Oh, you weren't staring. You were _leering.'

A muscle in Valter's mouth twitched slightly. _I swear he is going to be the death of me!_

"Have anything else to inform me of? Like you esteem that I'm madly in love with her?" sneered Valter, a caustic edge in his rough, dark timbre. Slivegio cocked his head sideways, as if he was actually analyzing and pondering on that precise concept.

'_Are you?'_ Slivegio snickered. In response, Valter slammed his heels against the wyvern's sides irefully, his knuckles milk-white and locking a death grip on the reins.

"Can you just swooped down and** attack**?" the wyvern knight growled, seething on all ends. Slivegio sniffed fallaciously, feigning hurt and sorrow.

'_All right, all right, all right, you didn't have to behave so brusque about it. Denial isn't always healthy—' _

"JUST DIVE!" roared Valter.

Simpering with complacence, Slivegio haughtily complied with his rider's wish and executed an efficient nosedive straight from the air and onto the unsuspecting Frelian battalion. The violet blue mount snapped his treacherous jaws at the Frelian army, snatching and flinging any unlucky soul nigh enough within its reach. Slivegio lashed his tail out, sending horses and men sky-high and launching others across the battlefield. Valter brandished, twirled, and then skewered his spear into anyone who_ dared_ to cross his path and his now tempestuous fury boiling and churning convulsively inside his blood. Slivegio was wrong; he definitely, positively wasn't attracted to Selena in any shape or form and certainly harbored no sentimental emotions or potential appetencies for her. The notion was absurd, completely absurd--is that a sage skulking up behind her?!

_Idiotic bastard! I'll __**drown**__ the plains with his blood!_

"Slivegio, to the right! Look to the sage!" Valter ordered grimly, erstwhile his spear in his right hand, prepared for combat. Slivegio pivoted its body around and darted after the aforementioned sage who was surreptitiously creeping up on Selena, muttering incantations under his breath. Selena was too preoccupied in delivering bolts of Thunder upon a squad of ill-trained paladins and callow mercenaries, entailing towards a total carnage. Valter quickly calculated the distance between the sage and him and the amount of time left for the sage to finish his spell. Judging by the sage's location and how he was executing the sneak attack, the Moonstone would have to conclude the sage was reciting Bolting.

_God's wounds, I won't be able to reach him in time! …Unless— _

Readjusting the spear in his hand, Valter concisely aimed the deadly weapon at his inobservant target and fully drew his arm back. Effortlessly, he rocketed the spear at the unaware sage who was still chanting. His aim flawless and true, the spear spiraled and pierced itself squarely into the mystical man's back, a coup de grace. The sage flopped forward to the ground haplessly. When Slivegio finally descended next to the sprawled cadaver, the wyvern knight reached out, grasped his spear, and yanked the pike viciously out of the carcass's ribcage.

"Let that be a lesson to you, wretch," he muttered wrathfully, boring phantasmic holes into the cadaver's back, "for trying to harm what's **mine**." Too late he realized what he uttered and just revealed, not only to himself but to Slivegio as well. The ultramarine, two-legged wyvern's scaly face was tantamount to a young child witnessing his very first festival and simultaneously was having sweets dropped into his lap.

'_I was correct! You're now getting possessive of her!' _Slivegio chimed in jovially and Valter dangerously narrowed his sable eyes on his mount's gleeful, smug visage. Ignoring his wyvern's snide remarks, he swung off the saddle and rummaged through the deceased sage's effects for any entity beneficial to him. Nothing suitable for him appeared. Redirecting his inspection, he spied the Bolting book. Nonchalantly picking the spell book up, he flipped incuriously through the pages. Even if he had no use for a novel on magic, he was acquainted with someone who was. Snapping the book shut, Valter looked over his shoulder to analyze Selena's condition.

Like a true warrior, she was adamantly standing her ground, annihilating all in her path. Bathed in fire and thunder, he begrudgingly had to admit her intimating spectacle was rather formidable and appealing to him. Breaking his intrigued scrutinizing, Valter tucked Bolting into his gear before mounting Slivegio again.

'_Planning on offering that spell book to her as a token of your affection?'_ sniggered Slivegio and a vein popped somewhere in Valter's forehead.

"That does it, Slivegio. Forget about those tenderloins I promised you earlier." Slivegio shrugged apathetically albeit his wild eyes danced with mirth.

'_I can live without them for today. This is by far more entertaining. After all, this is the first time a woman managed to plague your thoughts consistently.'_

"Back to the battle," the nefarious wyvern general commanded steely, jerking back on the reins, "and _enough_ about Selena." Slivegio grunted but nodded and once more took flight with an aggravated Moonstone on his back. Unbeknownst to his seething rider, Slivegio was busy contemplating his master's behavior and the next course of action.

'_Hm, I wonder if he'll ever plan on mating with her, she makes a perfect partner for him. As for their future offspring….'_

* * *

Finally, the massive fray was over and the Grado platoon was victorious. That prospect produced a small yet genuine smile on Selena's face as she tethered her horse to a tree, allowing her subordinates to take care of her mare, Sif. Selena gratefully plopped down a rock right outside her tent, relieved another combat was done and over with and they could all rest now. Amusingly observing the Grado soldiers celebrating and performing a myriad of frolicsome wrestling challenges and competitions, the Fluorspar leaned back as men and women alike hosted an informal revelry. Their merry, amiable voices steadily drifted into a vivacious melody, a war song she was familiar with and rather fond of:

"_The mountain sheep are sweeter,_

_But the valley sheep are fatter;_

_We therefore deemed it meeter_

_To carry off the latter,_

_We made an expedition;_

_We met a host, and quelled it;_

_We forced a strong position, _

_And killed the men who held it."_

"_The War Song of Dinas Vawr_, eh?" spoke a rich, rough timbre beside her. Startled, Selena turbulently whirled around to confront the arcane speaker. Who she met face-to-face was none other than Valter the Moonstone.

_Oh, dandy. What brings him here?_

"Hello there, Valter," Selena said thusly, her mind whirling with grand, complex ideas and notions why he was here, "and what sort of reason induces you to grace me with your presence?" Chuckling soundlessly at her sarcastic remark, the said wyvern knight took a seat beside her, also eying the celebrants prancing and dancing about in a stuporous, bedazzled fashion.

"No reason in particular, expect for maybe _that_," he replied, pointing to the modicum of inebriated soldiers amid the merry-goers, "I'm concerned for tomorrow if we have another battle, then some of our fighters will still be receiving the aftermaths of drinking to the excess. Combative performance will not be up to par."

Selena shrugged yet understood Valter's irritation towards the revelries' tomfoolery and casual activities. "Oh, let them have their gaiety. If some start going overboard, we shall intervene and send them straight to their tents."

Valter opened his mouth to either agree or oppose but the mirthful soldiers sang the next verse to song after the impromptu interlude beforehand.

"_On Dyfed's richest valley, _

_Where herds of kine were browsing,_

_We made a mighty sally,_

_To furnish our carousing._

_Fierce warriors rushed to meet us;_

_We met them and o'erthrew them:_

_They struggled hard to beat us;_

_But we conquered them, and slew them."_

"Very apropos, considering our splendid coup against the Frelian army," Valter commented offhandedly and Selena silently concurred, nodding. The Moonstone tilted his head in her direction, abysmal, profound sable eyes scrutinizing her pensive form. "Are you, in any way, acquainted with this song, Selena?" To his revelation, she nodded once more, a small smile gracing her fatigued features.

"Oh, yes, I heard _The War Song of Dinas Vawr_ countless of times, more than I can recollect," she answered divertingly, a grin tugging at the corners of her lips as the memories flashed haphazardly back at her. "I believe during my adolescent years is precisely when I heard the song the most."

Smirking, Valter directed his gaze back onto the gallivanting crowd, inwardly noting the number of drunks was steadfastly increasing. "_The War Song of Dinas Vawr_ was somewhat of my family's battle cry." Sapphire eyes wide in shock and fascination, Selene stared imploringly at Valter, who immediately noticed her curiosity.

"Really?" Valter nodded.

"It was also kind of like a patriotic sonnet for my clan. We would have our personal bards and minstrels play the song for guests, during banquets, balls, tournaments and combative competitions, you name it."

Selena arched an eyebrow, immensely intrigued by his past, of his family's history. "What's the name of your lineage, Valter?"

Suddenly, as if she uttered a verboten word, a foreboding, noxious aura descended the Moonstone, his pallid countenance darkening while his eyes calamitously flickered with inexplicable ire.

"**Silly little boy…foolishly believing you could **_**actually**_** exceed your inferior rank and dwell with the more sophisticated, revered folk of this superlative, prominent house." **

"I rather not say." he stated flatly, bitter resentment intertwined. Perplexed by this, Selena ignored her blaring alarms that hollered at her to allow Valter have his privacy and not inquiry him any further. However, she couldn't stop herself from accumulating more knowledge from Valter, everything she first perceived about him was swiftly crumbling away, into dust.

"What's so terrible about your family?" she queried half-heartily, attempting to sound affable and consoling-material. "I mean, of all the Grado households I can remember—"

"Do you recall the Schwarzesherz**(1)** House?"

"**You are tainted with the blood of the low class and an outsider. You will **never** achieve equal status you desperately crave for and be among the rest of us, the true** **kin of Schwarzesherz House." **

Her teal eyes dilating considerably Selena nodded stiffly, stifling the gasp lodged in her throat. "Yes, the House of the Spider." At the infamous nickname for his kin, Valter chortled mirthlessly, sheer acrimony dipped in his insidious laughter.

"Appropriately named my kindred were, both by their surname and nickname. Souls black and sordid as filth and hearts equivalent to any spider. Only a scant of an amiable folk was begotten amongst the Schwarzesherzs."

Selena bit her lip, dying to know more but reluctant to pry more into Valter's personal affairs and past. Curiosity inanely gnawing at her core, she opt to throw all caution into the wind and ask him anyway. "What…was life like, for you?"

"**You're trash, Valter. Remember that. Absolute trash. Hardly worthy of the Schwarzesherz name." **

Solemnity washed over the wyvern knight prior to the jaded, acid response departed his lips. "…Hell. Pure and utter Hell."

Selena dipped her head forward in sorrow, incredible guilt wracking her brain from her persistent effort to acquire more knowledge pertaining to Valter. "I apologize for coercing you to remember such an awful period in your childhood. I shouldn't have pried so much."

He shrugged, waving her apology off. "Forget about it. What my kinsfolk did to me is trivial, of little importance. _The War Song of Dinas Vawr_ was sole entity I liked that either reminded me of or originated from the Schwarzesherz House."

The doors to his surreal past closing shut and now forgotten, the two generals glanced back at the jovial, marveling celebrants who erstwhile began strutting around in a wide, discombobulated circle, holding hands while laughing and giggling and having a marvelous time. Their raucous, slurred voices drifted over the din of the commotion, resuming where they left off.

"_As we drove our prize at leisure,_

_The king marched forth to catch us;_

_His rage surpassed all measure,_

_But his people could not match us._

_He fled to his hall-pillars;_

_And, ere our force we led off,_

_Some sacked his house and cellars,_

_While others cut his head off."_

"They're certainly having fun, aren't they?" Valter remarked bluntly, talking to Selena and then to no one. "If any one of them by tomorrow morning retain a hangover and start regurgitating their insides out, they better not come crawling and whining to me."

"So…does that means _I_ have to be the one to tend them and listen to their blathering?"

His devious smirk returned. "More or less, yes. I will have more crucial duties to immerse myself in than to hear a gaggle of drunken, delusional wretches spew incessantly. You, however, are splendid for that sort of position."

All of Selena's tranquility towards him dispersed instantaneously, replaced with indignation. "Why you conceited, arrogant—"

"—egotistical, beastly, villainous, bloodthirsty, wretched, currish scoundrel." Valter finished for her, the diabolical smirk widening with every word. "I've heard them all, Selena, so there's no witty barb you land on me."

"…Ass."

Slightly taken aback by her direct, blatant use of execrations, he blinked incredulously at first but regained his pugnacious decorum, now gauging her with newfound inquisitiveness. "I dare say that's not a first but since when does a woman such as yourself utter such vulgar?"

Offering him a rather arched glare, Selena promptly replied, "When a man such as you acts like rascal he is."

"Again with the insults? Sure you don't have any more creative in mind?" The Fluorspar curled her lips into a menacing scowl, a promise of excruciating pain if his disparaging tangent continues.

"As a matter of fact I do, yet the barbs would make your ears bleed."

Valter held in his hands up in mock surrender, evident amusement dancing his ebony eyes. "You're going to swear like a sailor? Oh, do the gods know any mercy?" Snickering, he dropped the deluding charade and placed his hands back on his knees, quite proud of his gibe. Perhaps now he'll accomplish the task of silencing her razor-sharp tongue with witticisms of his own.

However, he believed that food for thought prior to the blonde mage knight decided to hurl composure out the window and literally _lunged_ at him, an arm retracting and a fist ready to inflict damage. Normally, he would have seething through his teeth if someone else pulled off a stunt like that as a mean of attacking him yet Selena was different, totally a separate case. That reason alone was why he continued grinning roguishly as he grasped her wrist while the fisted hand was projected and encircled his free arm around her waist, freezing her movements in an instant.

"Now that wasn't very nice of you," he remarked amusingly and Selena sharpened her glower on him.

"Look who's talking, knave!" she retorted glacially, evoking another round of chortles from the Moonstone.

"You're hitting them all, aren't you," Valter responded casually, jauntiness glinting in his pupils. Selena withered his arms, assaying to free herself from his adamant clutches. She faintly heard _The War Song of Dinas Vawr_ resonating in her ears as she vainly struggles against Valter's potent grip.

"_We there, in strife bewildr'ing,_

_Split blood enough to swim in:_

_We orphaned many children,_

_And widowed many women._

_The eagles and the ravens_

_We glutted with our foemen;_

_The heroes and the cravens,_

_The spearmen and the bowmen."_

"Valter!" Selena hissed through clenched teeth, "Release me this instant!"

Uttering no reply, the said general simply pulled her in close, pressing her roughly up against his body and unintentionally forming a more distinctive, frictional tension between them and their compressed, sweating beings. Selena's breathing hitched momentarily and Valter felt his groin tighten considerably as their bodies connected rather intimately. His throat suddenly dry, he swallowed briefly in a futile attempt to soothe his libido but with no prevail. His proximity betwixt Selena did nothing to assuage his concupiscence, only cultivating and whetting his appetite. Selena Fluorspar shifted dubiously in his enfoldment, unfortunately experiencing the same salacious, provocative sensations tingling and burning inside her.

Pregnant silence swept over the two Grado generals as they avert their gaze from each other, both unwilling to lock eyes on the other in apprehension of what they could potentially glean if they committed that capricious act.

After what felt like eons, Valter relinquished his grip over her and withdrew himself from his presence, an obscure, unrecognizable impression flicking in his sable orbs before vanishing completely. Without saying a word of farewell he departed, leaving Selena alone to her whirling thoughts and in a bewildered, convoluted state.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the rather embarrassing, intense incident, Selena took several breathes prior to coercing the contingency back in the corners of her mind. The final notes and definitive octaves of the jubilant singing voices wafted through the motionless air in the abruptly sober vicinity, captivating her bedazzled attention. Welcoming the distraction, Selena tilted her head towards the disseminated, makeshift gala with the occupants huddled together for the finale.

"_We brought away from battle,_

_And much their land bemoaned them,_

_Two thousand head of cattle._

_And the head of him who owned them;_

_Ednyfed, king of Dyfed,_

_His head was borne before us;_

_His wine and beasts supplied our feasts,_

_And his overthrew, our chorus." _

The tenors, baritones, and other various timbres echoed across the camp-out vicinage and then slowly evanesced, melting in with the quiet, subtle wind. Selena sighed in despair, realizing that the war song didn't wholly banish her fortuitous occurrence with Valter from memory. To the contrary, the incident was unfortunately implanted in her brain, tenaciously taking root. Raking a hand through her flaxen hair, Selena wistfully espied the direction Valter treaded upon and briskly swerved her head away from the path, as if she dreaded being caught staring at the place she last saw him.

Deciding she had enough eccentric actions for one day, the mage knight swiftly retired to her tent a few lengths away, anxiously trying to dismiss the notion that she felt a pair of eyes boring attentively at her back, never lifting their scrutiny until the tent flap canopied over her retreating form, formally obstructing the view and the inside components. Selena sank onto her cot, mindlessly dissecting her mundane accommodations and the past events of today. Unable to rid herself of the accursed image of a specific wyvern knight, Selena shifted her gaze unto her books, hoping they would offer some solace and a suitable distraction from her conflicting, disoriented mind.

She reached for the first book on the stack and then noticed the spell book isn't hers, or didn't belong to her to begin with. Tracing the electrifying, memorizing letters that congregated into _Bolting_, she pondered on how she had received such an exquisite prize, a magnificent treasure beyond all others.

"Who…?" she whispered breathlessly to herself, azure eyes assimilated on the Bolting's ornate, archaic cover, "Who would give me such a gift?" The only answer her mind could offer who was the conjuration of a navy blue and charcoal haired, caliginous-eyed man with a pugnacious attitude and a partially wanton personality, possessing a conniving smirk that could humor and infuriate her simultaneously.

At this thought, Selena tautly hugged Bolting nigh to her chest, her heart fluttering briefly in her ribcage before it resumed its typical, rhythmical pulsates. Ignoring the percolating sensation aching in her gut, she listlessly opened the spell book and threw herself into the realm intellect and magical knowledge inked upon the cream-colored pages, vainly assaying once more to rid Grado's Moonstone from her conscience.

How was she ever to foresee the subsequent, impending events and the inconceivable aftermaths to come?

* * *

"_Ah, love, let us be true_

_To one another! For the world, which it seems_

_To lie before us like a land of dreams,_

_So various, so beautiful, so new,_

_Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,_

_Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;_

_And we are here as on a darkling plain,_

_Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,_

_Where ignorant armies clash by night." _

_**-Dover Beach**_, Matthew Arnold

* * *

Huzzah! Finally I can enunciate the words I have been **dying** to utter: I am the first author to type a Valter/Selena! That is a fact, not a conjecture. I checked so myself hence I created the very first Valter/Selena ever to grace the Fire Emblem fandom.

My obsession for this stupendous pairing was gnawing at me for months until at last I realized I had to release the urge to write a Valter/Selena story prior to the badgering impetus drives me into the brink of insanity. Since I'm currently working on two other major stories, this fanfic will be rather short, given to the fact it's my fantastical version of a support conversation between two of my favorite generals (that should have never died initially and instead got together and eternally lived in prosperity and ebullience; all that jazz). To sum up what betide in the future chapters, there shall be two more chapters for Support B and A, and then the epilogue.

Moving on to a more dissimilar topic, some of you might be mulling about the brief mentioning of Valter's past. Do not despair, the impending chapters will delve more into his sordid, tragic past and all the injustices and iniquities he had to rise out from. I'm really looking forward in exploiting more of his past, it's going to be exhilarating!

So, hopefully all you readers enjoyed the first chapter, regardless of the abnormality of the pairing. If you can't stomach Valter/Selena, then don't read. Savvy? Anyway, reviews are welcomed with open arms and flamers will locked into a vacant, prosaic room and will do naught but listen to "Old McDonald" perpetually. Trust me, that music torture is _extremely _effective. Don't believe me? It's your funeral then –smirks-. And if you flame the pairing (which is near and dear to my heart and I adore Valter/Selena the same exact amount as Orochimaru/Sakura, which is saying something for those who know me and my taste for exotic, crack, etc couplings quite well) the punishment will be more severe. Just imagine listening to "Old McDonald" **and **watching Riev break dancing. What a pretty picture that makes.

Lastly, before I transmute out and end this fairly elongate author's note, I am hosting a Fire Emblem challenge for anyone interested. The challenge consists of both Fire Emblem and Sacred Stones pairings yet let me warn you, the pairings are unusual. So those who don't mind or relish in writing peculiar pairings might want to check my challenge (it can be found at the bottom of my profile). Don't say I didn't warn you -maniacal laughter fills the air-.

Tschüs!

_:SpeedDemon:_

**(1) **Schwarzesherz- blackheart (language: German)


	2. B: Why, There’s A Wench!

**My Damned Soul Needs Fire, My Damsel Breaths Fire**

**Summary: **(Support conversations between Valter and Selena) At first, their dialogues were nothing but bouts of wordplay, verbal swords hacking convulsively at each other. Yet as time worn on, they sought out each other's company because only they knew the other straight to the core. (ValterxSelena)

**Support B: **_Why, There's A Wench!_

**A/N:** This chapter's title derives from a quote from William Shakespeare's comedy, _The Taming of the Shrew._ Also, I have taken a few lines from that play. –grins impishly– See if you can detect them.

Text:

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

'_Wyvern Speech'_

**Flashback**

Poems/Sonnets:

"Strange fits of passion have I known" by William Wordsworth

"War Is Kind" by Thomas Love Peacock

"An Invite to Eternity" by John Claire

**Disclaimer: If I owned Sacred Stones, you do realize what that would mean, do you? Allow me to enlighten you: There would be immense, absolute hints of Valter/Selena and Caellach/Amelia and also, they would be the stars–and among a few others–in Sacred Stones. **

* * *

"_Strange fits of passion have I known:_

_And I will dare to tell,_

_But in the Lover's ear alone,_

_What once to me befell._

_When she I loved looked every day_

_Fresh as a rose in June,_

_I to her cottage bent my way,_

_Beneath an evening-moon."_

-_**Strange fits of passion have I known,**_ William Wordsworth

* * *

"**Valter, your duty to the Schwarzesherz House is simple: Serve the lords with complete devotion and fidelity. Question them not and no matter what, always bestow respect and obedience to them, even if they spit you in the face."**

"_**That**_** is your purpose in life." **

_My purpose...what is _even_ my purpose now?_

Dusky eyes apathetically browsed through all the disseminated possessions and weapons, searching furiously for some entity in his makeshift yet efficient tent to distract him and keep his mind off the past and the current events of the present. Of course, one item attracted his attention and the object had already been on his mind for quite some time. His newly acquired trinket was a Fili Shield, a rare and potent item specifically designed for wyvern and Pegasus riders. The metallic, silver shield had the power to negate the strength of an arrow's effect of the rider and his or her mount, bestowing them a lovely advantage over the archer. So when he discovered one of these glorious entities in his tent after another vigorous, successful campaign, he was pleasantly surprised and delighted simultaneously. However, the Fili Shield's abrupt appearance subsequently bothered him because he immediately perceived this was a gift of some sorts. Yet what really aggravated him was the fact that he had _no_ idea who would execute this fairly compassionate act towards him, of all people. Albeit his wyvern riders respected and even at times admired him, there was no possible way they would covertly offer him a Fili Shield if they found one. They would bloody more likely to keep the mystical shield for themselves than give the item away to him. So Valter was all out of suspects.

Grumbling in frustration, Valter picked up a spear, partly at ease when he felt the familiar weight in his hands. _I credit that a bit of conditioning and training would be beneficial right now. Anything is better than just simply sitting around and brooding. _Brusquely flipping the canvas tent's flap open, Valter briskly walked towards the training grounds of the camp, eager to stimulate the adrenaline rush and experience his blood pounding and rushing so freely in his veins as he swirls and pivots his spear around, caring naught for the world around him. He past Slivegio on his route and the ultramarine blue wyvern was eyeing jauntily him and grinning like he knew a delicious secret concerning his master.

'_I know something you don't know!'_ He chimed jovially as he preened his lustrous blue scales. Valter halted and tilted his head over to his mischievous, conniving mount, suppressing an eye roll from Slivegio's flippant antics.

"What is it?" the Moonstone demanded incuriously, sorely desiring to loosen up his muscles a bit more and lose him mind solely to the art of battling. Slivegio shrugged, polishing the claws of one of his hind feet with his forked tongue.

'_Why should I inform you? You really don't deserve it.'_

Irked, Valter confronted his astute wyvern with increasing irritation and furor. Undaunted by his rider's formidable stance, Slivegio merely blinked lazily at the foreboding, commending aura emanating off the volatile wyvern knight. _'Someone's quite testy. That's odd, considering we had such a fantastic onslaught with those pitiful Frelians.' _

"I'm 'testy' for a reason, Slivegio," Valter grounded out, inwardly pondering how to punish Slivegio for being so impudent, "and besides, _you_ didn't deserve that wild pig–which you proceed to devour so avidly." The blue violet mount simpered toothily, displaying an impressive set of white, razor-sharp teeth.

'_And the hog was mighty scrumptious.'_ Slivegio inputted thusly, smacking his mouth in remembrance of how tasty his after-battle snack was. Sighing exasperatedly, Valter set his spear and leaned casually against it, scrutinizing his wyvern as if he could glean the secret Slivegio was concealing from him.

"If you are not going to tell me then I just resume my actions and stop wasting my time around with you." Spear in hand, he swiftly turned himself back into the direction of the training grounds. He didn't get very far because Slivegio's next sentence froze him in tracks instantaneously.

'_I know who delivered that Fili Shield to your tent.' _

Whirling around once more to face his triumphant wyvern now supporting a cocky pose, Valter singed his wild sable eyes at Slivegio, silently demanding for the identity of the soldier who bequeathed such a possession to him. "_Who_?" he inquired piercingly, struggling arduously to keep his stony composure and motionless façade intact and not explode into an irrational, tempestuous pandemonium at Slivegio's confounding statement. The two-legged wyvern shrugged apathetically, loftily staring at Valter as if he was of little consequence.

'_Mull over it, Valter. Who in this whole entire camp would have the incentive to give you a Fili Shield?' _

"No one." Valter replied bluntly, his vitriolic temper rising. Shaking his massive, scaly head, Slivegio snorted and began cleaning its serpentine tail while taunting his master with some more elusive, cryptic gibes.

'_Try again.'_

Snarling, Valter glowered disapprovingly at Slivegio, sorely tempted to just leave and forget this whole unfavorable business. However, his wyvern wouldn't allow him to do such an act. _'Think about it. Who would want to do _you_ a favor?'_

Instantly, via Slivegio's words, Selena flashed in his brain but he quickly squashed that notion down. First of all, she was in the dark on who sent the Bolting tome so there would be no reason for her to proffer him the Fili Shield since she had no clue that the Bolting was from him…or did she?

"Slivegio…" Valter started slowly, portent subtly laced within his dark words, "did you somehow mention to Selena that it was I who gave her Bolting?" Yellow ochre pupils blinked owlishly and Slivegio looked at the Moonstone quite innocently. The Grado general nearly sniggered outright at his mount's "sincere" decorum. _As if such a devious act of his could actually deceive me._

'_Maybe a little birdie told her while you were away,'_ the sly wyvern suggested nonchalantly and Valter could feel one of his eyebrows twitching irefully.

"Try a meddling wyvern instead."

Complicating, Slivegio conceded, _'Well, I might have slipped a hint or two to her—'_

"**You did **_what_?" roared Valter, his enraged timbre spooking a myriad of birds for their nesting places and into the air. Glaring menacingly, Valter really wished for once Slivegio would keep his muzzle out of his personal affairs. "**You told her**?!" He nearly commenced in pacing belligerently if it wasn't for the spear in his right hand and the fact he didn't want to humor Slivegio any further. Slivegio unfolded his red violet wings out, stretching them to their maximum wingspan while arching his back up like a cat.

'_Well, you certainly weren't going to tell her and she was so desperate to know who bestowed that generous gift to her. I could hardly permit you to throw away the chance to be with such a fair creature so I subtly prod her down the path. She was extremely quick to realize the present was from you. I must say, she was utterly shocked, given to the fact it is _you_ but she decided to repay your 'kindness'–as she put it–by offering you of something of equal value. Ergo, she discovered a Fili Shield after a concise skirmish from a wyvern lord and brought it to your tent when you were absent temporarily.'_

Growling furiously and uttering not another word to his mount, Valter left Slivegio alone, ignoring the blasted, cumbersome wyvern's advices to thank her properly and among other…_entities_. He wanted to sharpen and hone his skills, not thank that intricate, infuriating woman for her gift_—_

"Valter?"

Clenching his jaw with inexplicable rigor, the said wyvern knight truculently faced the second interrupter of his plans for practice. His bellicose mood immediately evanesced and became dormant when he glanced at who had spoken his name.

Who he saw was certainly one of the last people he expected to see, after all these years. Also, _he_ was certainly one of the last people Valter desired to converse with, much less meet again.

Narrowing his onyx eyes suspiciously, the Moonstone crossed his arms in a hostile manner, positioning his spear at a sufficient place beside him just in case he would have to wield it against the adverse person standing rather arrogantly in front of him.

"_You_," he spat acridly, "what are _you _doing here?"

* * *

Contrary to one might believe, Selena didn't go meandering from pavilion to pavilion, scrounging for whoever consigned her Bolting; she was far more clever and wily than to execute something so rudimentarily as that. She opted for a subtle, surreptitious approach: She casually and indifferently ambled around the camp, inspecting the soldiers' conditions and how the army was progressing while having the Bolting tome tucked circumspectly under her arm. As she performed her duties through out camp, she would observe and analyze the soldiers' reactions and visages when they noticed Bolting and inquired her about the thunderous tome. Time languidly dragged by and she was fruitless in her search. It was well after the battle with the Frelian army again when she finally concluded to put the whole matter to rest and allow the clandestine person's identity to remain unknown to her. Selena still wouldn't have conceived the identity if she hadn't strolled by Valter's wyvern, Slivegio, as he was named.

She just so had happened to spot Slivegio and with curiosity nagging her, she approached the wondrous, magnificent beast in a benevolent fashion to convey to the wyvern she wasn't going to harm it in any way. Valter's wyvern simply returned the gesture with a latent yawn, scratching its right shoulder but a twinkle of elation betrayed the ultramarine blue wyvern's ploy. As she lifted one hand up to scratch its cranium, Slivegio instantly butted his whole head into her outstretched palm, its eagerness for the blonde mage knight's attention irrefutably obvious. Lips quirking up into a regaled smile, Selena complied and adroitly stroked and scratched Slivegio's scaly face, who enunciated a low, content growl from the back of its gullet.

"You like that, don't you, you handsome boy," cooed Selena as she intensified her ministrations, "I'm not surprise. With all those lovely scales they're bond to get itchy." The mount nodded lazily in consonance, thoroughly relishing Selena's soothing caresses and massaging tangents. Dipping his head downward and nudging Selena to now work her magic on his long, expansive neck. Shaking her head, Selena slid her fingers from the wyvern's scalp to his neck, fingertips endearingly petting each scale. Of course, this course of action would have gone on probably forever if the Fluorspar didn't espy the flash of recognition in Slivegio's yellow ochre pupils when he noticed her Bolting tome.

"You've seen this book before, haven't you?" Selena questioned lightly, gesticulating to the Bolting in the opposite arm. Slivegio nodded, an almost humanistic smirk adorning its muzzle. There was spark of either connivance or mischief glinting in his devious eyes prior to what betided next. Much to her surprise Slivegio inclined his head over to Valter's canvas canopy, his tail swishing in the same direction and nearly _pointing_ squarely at the wyvern knight's pavilion. Her eyes widen when she comprehended what exactly Slivegio was implying posthaste to her.

"You can't be serious…. _Valter_, your rider, gave _me_ Bolting?" Another head nod from Slivegio confirmed her shocking conjecture. "I don't understand. Why would he do that? I thought he abhors me."

Slivegio shifted its shoulders around, performing a wyvern's version of shoulder-shrugging. "Well, I suppose, he didn't confide his reasons to you. No matter, I shall repay him anyway." Quickly fondling the tiny row of hornlets on top of Slivegio's crown as a silent 'thank-you', Selena retreated back to her tent, knowing she definitely possessed an item that was of crucial value to a warrior like Valter.

_I'm so relieved I was able to scrap up that Fili Shield from that opposing wyvern lord. How a simpleton like him managed to obtain such a mystical and potent object is beyond me. _

With guile and swiftness, Selena transferred the hard-won Fili Shield from her tent to Valter's. Much to her credit, no one, save Slivegio, saw this conveying system. Now she had repaid his thoughtful act (the concept still seemed so strange, so alien to her. This was _Valter_, after all) her mind could finally rest at ease with the prospect that she and him were now even. They did not owe each other anything nor were there any debts needing to be fulfilled. All actions had been dealt with accordingly and she could now focus on other pressing matters.

Unfortunately, all her ideas and future plans were hurled straight into a tumultuous, precipitate maelstrom when one of her subordinates came rushing to her, his perspiring visage flushing an unnatural scarlet.

"Dame…Selena!" he cried out breathlessly, huffing and puffing between words, "Down by…the training…grounds! Terrible…scuffle! General…Valter's…there!" He paused and hunched over, placing his hands on his knees to control the haphazard breathing. Once he collected his breath he resumed his urgent message.

"General Selena, General Valter is having a bit of a brawl with another man. I'm not sure who he is but apparently Lord Valter knows him." the Grado soldier reported diligently, saluting the mage knight after he finished.

Frowning, Selena acknowledge her subordinate's salute with a head tilt before firmly deducing her decision of this imminent quandary. "Near the training grounds, you say?" The young soldier bobbled his head up and down vigorously and Selena nodded with satisfaction. "Go back to your post. I'll be taking care of the predicament. Let's hope Valter doesn't do too much damage when I arrive."

With a flick of her wrist, her emerald cape swished majestically outward and she gaited down towards the aforementioned training grounds. Predicting the worst, she quickened her stride in case the mere melee suddenly transforms into a truculent, bloody assailment. A stentorian zephyr wiped around all her as she vehemently approached her destination, viridian cape billowing out behind her, painting Selena as the august warrior goddess Valter always had clandestinely envisioned her as.

And this warrior goddess was about to assess a fervid situation and deal with two squabbling young men.

* * *

When the Moonstone had voiced his acerbic, accusatory demand, the young, alabaster man arched two fine, lofty eyebrows and shifted himself into a quite condescending pose. "After all these years, is that all you have to say to me, your dear cousin, Valter?" inquired the aristocratic gentleman mockingly, unclipping the lustrous, gilt clasp to his sepia mantle and allowing the intricately woven material slither to the ground. On cue, one of his servants quickly bent down to collect the fallen piece of fabric and draped the caliginous mantle over one arm. Spying a squadron of well-built, sturdy horses behind his cousin and his valet, Valter could now deduce exactly how his kin and his band of servants managed to travel to the campsite with minor hassles and detours.

"Don't be so shock, _cousin_. You are fully aware that I severed all ties from the Schwarzesherz House long ago–that denouncement is of no privy. What brings you here, Clark?" Valter retorted brusquely, wanting this little reunion to be done and over with. Clark was one of his family members he detested the most, ranking up high in his list of the people he incalculably despised in the Schwarzesherz House.

His cousin, Clark, flicked imaginary dirt off his shoulder and airily smoothed out his beige silk tunic before responding, perceiving how much Valter loathed to be kept waiting. "Family business." Clark replied in a lackluster tone as he inspected dirt he just so happened to spot underneath his polished, unadulterated fingernails.

"What does your family have to do with me? I told you, I have no part in that sordid, Godforsaken hellhole." remarked Valter irately, his grip around his lance tightening while his other hand covertly clenched into a tight, deadly fist.

"_Our_ family, Valter. The Schwarzesherzs refuse to neither believe nor accept your renouncement to your heritage. How could you possibly deny such family love?"

Snorting derisively, Valter bitterly rebutted, "Try vanity, Clark. It's all vanity and egotism. That's why great-grandfather Milo wouldn't let my mother go." _He refused to allow her to be happy and free, no matter how assiduous she was to him and that putrid house of his!_

**The anguished, horrified screams of a young woman in pain and despair echoed perpetually in his ears, taunting him with the notions and images of his mother lying pitifully on the ground, pleading for mercy on the man she loved so dearly. He could vividly imagined the sparkling, crystalline tears streaming down her beautiful, porcelain visage as she desperately voiced out her plea to her dastardly kinsmen. A hopeless plea that would only fall to deaf ears. **

"Speaking of great-grandfather Milo, he is the exact reason I am here." Stopping short of his statement, Clark hesitated, his boyish visage evidently evincing his wariness of Valter and his imminent reaction to the rest of the news. Yet the sense of dubiety rapidly vanished as the moment came and Valter's superficial cousin continued. "He's dying, Valter, and has requested to see you."

If Valter was at all stunned by the abrupt announcement of his great-grandfather's wasting, impending demise, he masked his astonishment flawlessly. Eyeing Clark coldly, Valter twirled his lance in place, blatantly displaying his displeasure of his cousin's manifesto. "So the old coot is finally facing his end. Given to our past history I find the prospect of him needing to see me quite difficult to swallow. What does he want?"

Clark shrugged his shoulders. "I don't have a single clue. He simply ordered me to round a couple of my men and servants and journey across Grado to find you. He told me 'he desired an audience with you'."

"Through out the years he could have done that he has waited till the last minute to finally lower himself to _talk _to me?" sneered the Moonstone. "I'm afraid I will have to pass on the opportunity, Clark. I was never fond of the wretched gaffer to begin with–and he to me. There are more substantial tasks I must concern myself with, such as this war. I much rather fight than attend a little _sentimental_ family reunion with the Schwarzesherzs at great-grandfather Milo's deathbed."

Clark's well-groomed face instantaneously switched from milky-white to ashen gray when Valter uttered his ominous answer. "But you must come!" protested Clark fervently, "You cannot disobey a direct command from the supreme leader of the Schwarzesherz House!"

Disconcerted, he confronted Valter impulsively and pointed an accusing, condemning figure at the nonchalant wyvern knight. "Remember your duty as a Schwarzesherz! Dying or not, Milo still holds power over you!"

"**You are under my control, my sovereignty. You cannot escape my might, Valter. I am the monarch of this house and you shall **always** obey me and your superiors."**

**The tall yet emaciated man fixated his glacial, umber pupils onto the young boy before him, expertly analyzing the compressed ire and indignation the navy blue and black haired youth concealed in his ebony eyes. **

"**That, unfortunately, was a lesson your foolish pathetic mother chose to forget." **

"_No,_" Valter hissed cholericly, lance surreptitiously leaving his side and slightly jutting outward as a dire warning of death to his cousin Clark if he inched closer or treaded on that topic further. "That **fiend **will never sway dominance over me. Despite what you or he may esteem, I am **not** bound to the will of the Schwarzesherz House."

Rage sparkled profusely in Clark's muddy brown eyes and a nasty scowl grazed across his displeased features. "If memory serves, your mother uttered a similar phase to great-grandfather Milo when she ran off with that baseborn solider of fortune. Planning on following the same doomed footsteps of your stupid, delusional mother, a disgrace to all Schwarzesherzs?" he jeered, comprehensively traipsing on dangerous territory. He _knew_ the barb would strike an enormous nerve in Valter for it was no secret to the Schwarzesherzs how he loved his parents, even if he was only acquainted with them for a short time.

Just as soon as the final words left his lips, Valter's fist came flying. The iron fist smashed savagely into Clark's nose, blood squirting out dynamically. A sickening, snapping cacophony reverberated all around the vicinity as Valter grinded his fist deeper against his startled, speechless cousin's face, taking no heed as the crimson liquid was smeared across the pale flesh of his hand and morphing carmine rivulets down his arm. A strident, detrimental cry broke free from Clark's parted mouth as the Moonstone intensified his pugnacious tangent, the malicious sneer long gone from Clark's face.

"If you **ever** talk about my mother in that way again, I will assure you that you will find my lance impaled through your chest and embedded deeply into your lungs. Your death shall be agonizing and endless. Remember that and remember it _well_." Retracting his arm, Valter dispassionately watched his cousin stumbling backwards, clutching his bleeding nose with one hand and with the other, impatiently gestured his attendants to assist him in his sanguinary condition.

"Valter, you wretched cur!" Clark snarled furiously, albeit his muffled, agonized soprano sounded less threatening than it was intended, "You really haven't changed at all, haven't you?"

"Likewise, cousin." countered the Moonstone. Clark shot him a resentful glower as his valet handed him a flimsy handkerchief which Clark gladly but rudely snatched out of the valet's fine, delicate hands. He covered the brocaded handkerchief over his bleeding, certainly broken nose, bloodstains instantly imbibing the luxurious fabric with drops of vermillion.

"Don't just stand there!" Clark barked at his servants, "Go and get me a healer!" He brutally shoved a manservant of his into another one, both lanky lads colliding head-first into each other. After recovering from the abrasive collision they clumsily scurried off to find a healer for their liege.

"Is something amiss here, gentlemen?"

Both men convulsively whirled around towards the direction of speaker who enunciated with icy fire and steely conviction. The interrupter of the family feud was none other than Selena Fluorspar herself.

* * *

"Selena," Valter acknowledged indifferently, fiercely contemplating why she was here and what would she do next. Azure eyes flashed inscrutably in his direction and she responded with a respectable head nod. The mage knight then shifted her focus onto Clark, perplexity adorning her hardened countenance.

"Who are you?" she asked cordially to Valter's cousin, caution and subtle suspicion mingling within her firm, potent voice and blazing sapphire orbs. Blotting the blood pouring copiously out of his contorted nostrils, Clark wiped his nose clean of blood–temporarily, at least–and discarded the blood-soaked cloth for a fresh, unadulterated one conjured by his sober, rigid valet.

"My name is Clark Schwarzesherz, milady," introduced Clark fluidly, bowing gallantly to Selena, "I am a cousin of Valter's."

At this admission Valter wanted to do nothing more than to shove his lance down his haughty, miserable excuse of a cousin's throat.

"General Valter did briefly mention the Schwarzesherz House but never his family members," Selena mused phlegmatically, casting an inquiring gaze at Valter, who promptly answered with a stoic 'I'll-tell-you-later' glance.

An ambiguous expression appeared on Clark's visage as his dusky umber pupils once more narrowed in on the inexpressive Moonstone, a hint of a simper shadowing the insidious cousin's lips. "Heh, it's no surprise that he fails to talk about us. He has always be estranged to the Schwarzesherz House for many a year, if I am not mistaken."

Eyes remaining fixated on Valter, Selena murmured loudly, "That explains a lot." She still kept her inquisitive stare latched on Valter, silently asking him with her lapis lazuli pupils what this frictional conjunction was about and what his cousin's business was. When he declined to respond, Selena simply strolled over to him and whispered in his ear, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Valter lazily arched an eyebrow at her austere request, casually regarding her with much apathy. "Now?" A fierce, agitated spark ignited in the Fluorspar's azure orbs, akin to a precarious fire flaring over a fascicle of kindling.

"Yes_, now,_" she hissed back caustically, piercing, venomous daggers in her words, "I would like an explanation in why a nobleman like your cousin is here–amidst a fickle and hazardous battlefield–**and** the reason why you punched him the nose."

Sighing exasperatedly, Valter complied with her insistent demands, conceiving he would be facing a torrential, violent hurricane if he continued to disagree and refused her requisition. Motioning her over to a couple feet away from Clark, he gruffly told the pompous, vain young man, "Give me and Dame Selena a moment. We have a couple of _issues_ to discuss about." Clark nodded albeit there was fallacious, conniving glint in his smoky pupils.

"Take your time, Valter. I can wait as long as you like." Valter did_ not _enjoy the manner his cousin was transparently eyeing–no, make that _ogling_–Selena in such a coquettish, lascivious fashion. Now he really desired to puncture all Clark's internal organs by first thrusting his spear down in his throat and then up an equally painful region as well. Before he could acridly remind Clark that he was _married_and drive his cousin's brain back into his head, Selena savagely twisted him around to face her, revealing a peeved expression and two eyes of explosive, truculent fire.

_What is the problem _now_?_

"I want an explanation, Valter, and you better provide me with a sufficient one. Tell me why you incited a pandemonium in the middle of encampment when it's the very last quandary we need on our hands. We have to keep the troops' morale high!"

"Well, obviously you haven't met my wyvern riders. Watching me take apart someone in a rough-and-tumble is merely one example of how to buoy up their esprit de corps." remarked the Moonstone matter-of-factly, partially envisioning all his assiduous, rowdy wyvern warriors placing bets on how long it would take for his opponent–which would be Clark momentarily–to crack under the merciless, herculean blows of his savage iron fists.

Selena dangerously narrowed her scintillating sapphire eyes on his person and for a second, Valter divertingly wondered if that piercing, scathing glare could freeze Hell and send the brave heading for the hills with their figurative tails tucked between their legs like affrighted dogs—all at once.

She was quite a lethal beauty. Unfortunately, he usually ended up desiringthose types of women–with an immense, burning passion.

"I'm not in the mood for your gibes, Valter," the livid mage knight replied crisply, "and you should know I don't have much patience either."

"What a coincidence. Neither do I."

Wearily sighing, Selena ran one hand through her flaxen hair, evidently exasperated of Valter's elusive, noncommittal remarks. "Please, just answer the bloody question. What's Clark, your cousin, _doing here_?"

"The milksop is on an errand. Family business to be exact."

Quirking one fine, fair eyebrow at his straightforward assertion, Selena glanced once more at the said cousin and back at Valter, who now displayed a rather bored look on his placid, redefined features. "May I ask what family business is so urgent for your cousin to sojourn over into dangerous, hostile territory?"

This time, Valter narrowed his analytical coal pupils unto Selena, a slight frown marring his apathetic, presumptuous demeanor. "No, you may not. The reason is quite personal and I shall be ordering Clark and his decadent caravan to leave pronto so there is no need for you to pry into my family affairs." Selena opened her mouth to object but Clark's cadent voice rippled through the secluded vicinage as he called out over to them:

"Valter! Are you accepting great-grandfather Milo's invitation or not?"

_God's wounds, why couldn't Clark have been strangled at birth?! His head is going to be mounted on my lance if he breaths one more word._

"You heard my answer, did you not, Clark?" he growled back, his beastly temper rising. Clark's mouth twitched into a devious, scheming smile, unfazed by Valter's rejection.

"I did but I chose not to accept your repudiation. Perhaps your lady can assist me by persuading you to reconsider?"

By those cumbersome words, Valter viciously craved to rip Clark's vocal chords right out of his throat with his bare hands, then thrust them back into his rattling mouth, skewer him to his spear, roast his odious cousin over a massive open fire and disembowel him while Clark fizzled from the scorching, gluttonous flames, and finally feed the remnants to Slivegio (who would probably receive an indigestion yet the sly, complacent wyvern definitely deserved having finite stomach cramps due to all his incessant meddling) for dragging Selena into their family troubles. That situation was one of the very last entities he wanted to deal with.

"Clark, you are sorely trying my patience. I highly suggest you to scram with your little group and leave me be. Continue to test my limits of restraint and the Schwarzesherz House will soon have another member to bury in their private cemetery."

Clark blanched, his impish simper evanescing quickly. "You haven't heard the end of this, Valter!" he retorted furiously, "You'll comply to great-grandfather Milo's demands sooner or later. You can't escape from the Schwarzesherzs forever!"

Ignoring his cousin's blathering Valter waved a hand of dismissal, evidently signaling they were finished and he would discuss with him no further. Shooting a dirty scowl at the Moonstone, Clark withdrew his presence from the two Grado generals but not before winking devilishly at Selena. Unfortunately, Valter espied this and was ready to bestow another brutal cuff onto his cousin yet Selena grabbed him by one shoulder and yanked him back, preventing him from carrying out the assailment.

"What was _that_ all about? Did I miss something between you two?" Selena queried inquisitively, glancing back and forth from Valter and the retreating, disgruntled Clark.

"Nothing, save for an amiable conversation between two extremely close cousins," he answered sarcastically, wiping the blood from his hand onto his smalt-colored trousers.

"Aye, because it's natural for everyone to punch their cousins in the face."

Valter shot her an agitated glower. "Only if their cousin is a deplorable louse," he countered acrimoniously.

Selena frowned but chose to ignore the acerbic retort. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't. You were just being sarcastic."

"And that matters because…?"

A sharp breath of enragement and exasperation exhaled furiously from Selena and she threw her hands up in the air as a gesture of frustration. "Of all the men I have had the fortune and misfortune to encounter in my lifetime, _you_, Valter, are the worst. Insufferable and pig-headed to the core."

Fighting back the urge to smirk roguishly at her distress Valter readjusted his apathetic decorum prior to replying with another witty persiflage. "And, _you_, my dear Selena, are the most infuriating wench I have ever laid eyes on."

"Better to be infuriating than an ass. Than again, asses are made to bear, and so are you!"

A devilish, humorous twinkle gleamed in the wyvern knight's atrous pupils. His mouth twitched in amusement. The opportunity was simply too ripe and delicious to pass up.

"Women are made to bear, and so are you."

There was her fury again, the paroxysmal of fulminating indignation and wrath flashing in her star sapphire orbs while her tautly pressed coral lips moved slightly to form incoherent enunciations. He first thought she was merely muttering a few curses under her breath, to abate the rage coiling and churning in her fervent blood. Yet as the mumblings grew more frequent and constant and a stormy chill settled over the atmosphere, Valter instantly perceived the pending danger. Sensing the electricity accumulating in the dusky sky he analyzed the hushed chanting of Selena and the covert movement of her hand as she subtly guided the lightning bolt towards him. With unearthly agility and premeditation, Valter swiftly dodged the thunderbolt and whirled out of harm's way, witnessing the aerial assailment strike and scorch the spot he was previously at seconds ago.

Eyes aflame with beastly outrage and tumult, the Moonstone glowered vindictively at his assaulter, who wore a complacent, regaled expression on her normally phlegmatic face.

"What the bloody hell was that for?!" he thundered at her, unable to restrain his temper, "Are you trying to kill me, you damned wench?!"

Arching a fair eyebrow, Selena crossed her arms nonchalantly and cocked her head a curious manner. "And it's okay for you to hiss death threats at me but not for me to bestow them?" A visible smirk graced her lips while she spoke.

Seething, Valter grinded his teeth to bridle his inner ire. "Unlike you, I didn't carry them out…yet. But I'll be happy to comply, since you apparently have a death wish."

"Oh, quit your bloodthirsty griping. You survived, did you not?"

"Aye, but I don't want another episode of that."

"Then don't incite me again and I won't frizzle you into a crisp."

Letting loose a feral growl, Valter stormed on over to Selena, damning the repercussions and all sense of rationale. He refused to be trumped by some hoyden and then see her calculating azure eyes scintillating triumphantly at the victory. By his lance, _he'll_ reign supreme and bring her to her knees, if may be. Mind turbulently brewing with retribution, Valter viciously grabbed Selena before she could counterattack or resist. Purely acting on a whim and an innate impulse, Valter drew the mage knight nigh to him, unintentionally aligning their bodies perfectly together. Smirking sadistically as she gasped unexpectedly Valter ignored the lapis lazuli orbs rife with promising vengeance and executed the one action he conceived would immobilize and silence Selena simultaneously.

With majority of practically and his dwindling sanity out the window, Valter slammed his hungry lips straight into her protesting mouth and promptly gifted her with a kiss unlike any she has ever tasted.

* * *

"I take it you weren't successful with your retrieval on Valter, am I right, love?"

Clark glanced over his shoulder at the lithe, graceful woman standing behind him, her soft pale hand clasping his left forearm affectionately. Cupping one supple cheek in the palm of his hand, Clark nuzzled himself against her face and she giggled.

"I'm afraid so, my beautiful gem. Valter was always a stubborn one." He breathed in the floral perfume of his lady, aroused by the coy scent of jasmine and roses. "My, my, you smell particularly marvelous, Lucrizia. A new incense of yours?"

Lucrizia laughed mellifluously and she plastered herself deeply into her lover's body. Already he was hardened and ready for her. She inwardly grinned at her trivial yet provocative victory. _Still have the charm. I bet his petulant shrew of a wife couldn't make him randy and lustful in mere moments!_

"Of course, love. I bought the perfume specifically for you." Adoringly resting the side of her fact against Clark's chest, she entwined her arms around his torso, deliberating pressing her abdomen against his manhood. While she was on the salacious tangent, she gently grinded her hips into his. "Do you want me to alleviate the onerous burdens of family obligations off your shoulders for today? I can make you more…_comfortable_." Her seductive purr caused Clark to chuckle and then peck Lucrizia lightly on the cheek.

"No doubt you can, my pearl, but tragically enough, your gracious offer going to have to wait." His mistress pouted adroitly at his words albeit her dusky eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"Pray you, tell me what ever could prolong you from coming to my bed?" Clark endearingly tucked a jet-black curl behind his lover's ear prior to his explanation.

"I have concocted a plan; a simple yet ingenious strategy that I am quite sure will force Valter to comply with my family's demands."

Lucrizia arched a well plucked eyebrow at Clark's statement, nonplussed by her lover's seemingly bolstering confidence. "But how do you manage to accomplish that feat?" Clark's scheming grin widen even further.

"Simple, my beauteous jewel. I have reason to believe Valter is deeply intrigued with a woman."

His doxy laughed jovially, her alluring ebony pupils sparkling with excitement and avid eagerness. "Really now? How do you know? Did you meet her?"

"Yes, I have. Judging from my speculations I'd say she is among equal rank to Valter and also a commander of the Grado Imperial Army." Lucrizia scrunched her nose up, an askance expression crossing her face as she comprehended the occupation of Valter's woman of interest.

"So she's a warrior wench? Figures someone like Valter would choose a woman like that." she muttered in a displeased tone, her disapproval rolling off in sheer volumes. "So, have you beheld this female soldier?"

Clark nodded solemnly while lazily stroking the sides of her face with his forefinger. "Is she a wyvern rider like him?" This time, the aristocrat shook his head.

"No, my darling. Judging from her attire and the tome tucked under the crook of her arm, I'd say she is magic wielder. Curious pick on Valter's part, dabbling into the magic region. Perhaps he's searching for a bit of danger and excitement simultaneously." _Though I must admit my beastly cousin certainly has exquisite, excellent taste in woman. She definitely was a beauty. _

"Valter _always_ relishes in flirting with disaster," Lucrizia pointed out as she sensuously snuggled up against her lover's chest, burying herself into his warm, beckoning arms. "But how will you use this woman to get what you want from Valter?" The conniving, fiendish smile was back and a delighted light shimmered in Clark's coal-esque eyes.

"My dear cousin is invariably protective of anything he deems 'his'. If he is indeed attracted to that wench like I have suspected than he will do exactly as I predicted. I shall attack Valter's woman when she's alone and then capture her. Next, I will send word of her imprisonment straight to my cousin and request for his cooperation in sojourning back to the Schwarzesherz House with me. Once Valter receives wind that his beloved lady is in peril and faces dire circumstances, he will no doubt grudgingly accept my terms. I will be twisting his own dark passion against him."

Utter admiration sparkling in Lucrizia's orbs and she lasciviously intertwined a leg around one of Clark's outstretched legs, cooing, "You are _so_ clever, love. I simply would **love** to tease him after your scheme succeeds."

Clark laughed mirthfully and enveloped his mistress with a long, romantic kiss. "You can have all the time you desire, Lucrizia. Banter him all you want, the bloody caitiff deserves the torment." Devious thoughts shifting away, both lovers kissed passionately again and slipped clandestinely into Clark's sumptuous, prodigious pavilion where they had more amorous intentions in mind.

* * *

"_Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind._

_Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky_

_And the affrighted steed ran on alone,_

_Do not weep._

_War is kind."_

Taking a rather generous sip from her tankard, Selena silently watched the bard delicately pluck the strings of his guitar, totally in sync with the undulated melody of the shawm and bagpipes while the sober soprano of the female followed the steady, staid rhythm of the music. The bagpiper blared another climatic note and the pliant, beauteous singer opened her mouth, allowing the mellifluous words to pour out.

"_Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment_

_Little souls who thirst for fight_

_These men were born to drill and die_

_The unexplained glory flies above them_

_Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom—_

_A field where a thousand corpses lie."_

After a long, grueling journey of trudging through all the slough, loam, and muck, they had finally arrived at a small yet prosperous Grado village and the denizens were only too ecstatic to furnish the Grado Imperial Army with supplies, weapons, and entertainment. In fact, the most superlative and high-class tavern (strangely called _Gorgon's Eye_) in the village Worem announced that all Grado soldiers were joyously welcomed and would receive free meals and rooms during their stay in Worem. Both the men and women of the Grado regiment were jubilant and rowdy after hearing the cordial proclamation. Immediately, they commenced in indulging themselves with pleasures and gaiety to relieve the strife and burdens of war off their weary shoulders. Much to the Fluorspar's dismay, countless of the Grado males–and a myriad of females–eagerly flocked to the local brothels, coins in one hand and a prostitute holding the other.

Popping a succulent, scrumptious grape into her mouth, Selena scanned the rejoicing vicinity of the cozy inn, mentally noting how attentive the inhabitants of _Gorgon's Eye_ were to her troops' comforts and needs. Many of the soldiers were lasciviously flirting with the local barmaids and the barmaids were flirting just as shamelessly right back. Some of the serving maidens were even sitting on the laps of the Grado warriors, absentmindedly tracing the contours of their visages with a finger and silkily whispering promising entreats of passion and sexual enthrallment.

"General Valter, would you like another mug of mead?"

The dulcet, velvety lilt of a young female averted Selena's attention from the disseminated Grado legionnaires and onto the aforementioned wyvern general and a curvaceous barmaid who had just spoken. Cardinal curtains of curly ringlets flowing past her shoulders and ending around the midsection of her back, she also possessed creamy, flawless skin and a pair of memorizing aubergine eyes. Donned in a spring green dress with a leather burnet bodice that fitted her body like a glove and practically had her entire chest spilling out of its confinements, the lively crimson haired lass certainly was an enormous hit with the majority of the men in _Gorgon's Eye_. Expertly balancing a tray of mugs with one hand and placing her free hand on Valter's shoulder, she blatantly massaged the area in an extremely intimate fashion. Vivid amethyst orbs coquettishly eyed the pugnacious Moonstone and the comely maid boldly ventured her fingers away from his shoulder, towards his brow.

"Or…is there something else you need, like…_company_, perhaps?" she insinuated alluringly, inching closer to Valter, a lewd, thrilling smile slithering across her full rosy lips. Setting the tray of steins down on the table the barmaid leaned forward, purposely exposing the immense cleavage of her pert, ample breasts. Instantly conceiving her intentions, the Moonstone smirked slightly at her enticing antics, a wolfish gleam in his ebony pupils.

"Hm, how very tempting. What's your name, my dear?"

The promiscuous barmaid tittered giddily at his dark, appealing words. "Ellen," she replied coyly, fluttering her eyelashes at him. Valter answered with a knowing, regaled grin.

At this rather flirtatious exchange Selena craved to viciously pry Ellen off Valter and then curtly tell him to resume quaffing down his mead. Scratch that, she just send him to his quarters, she absolutely didn't need him luring a bevy of charming belles to his side–or his bed for that matter.

"_Do not weep, babe, for war is kind._

_Because your father rumbled in the yellow trenches,_

_Raged at his breast, gulped and died, _

_Do not weep._

_War is kind."_

The siren voice of the songstress unfortunately did very little to distract Selena from the magniloquent ministrations of Ellen or Valter's subtle entertainment towards Ellen's lusty tangents. "You're a wyvern knight, are you not?" Ellen purred, almost plopping herself on Valter's lap. She wistfully toyed with a strand of his long navy blue and charcoal hair as she straddled one leg over him. A muscle near Selena's right eye twitched momentarily.

"That is correct," Valter replied indifferently, now arching an incurious eyebrow at Ellen's bold act. She cast sweeping gaze across his body, devoid of its usual armor, and her amethyst eyes were glazed with fervid appetency. A raw, alien emotion akin to rage boiled turbulently in Selena's blood as she displeasingly witnessed the wanton, meretricious female further her advances upon Valter.

"You must be remarkably strong, General Valter," she whispered suggestively, the carnality blazing ardently across her smooth, unblemished features. "Can you show me _how_ strong you are?" Before the Moonstone could respond, he was interrupted with another serving girl who came stomping up to him and Ellen.

"Ellen!" chided the waitress, "What are you doing?" Ellen sharply narrowed her amaranthine eyes at the female and shot her a venomous glower.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Alyssa?" Ellen commented icily, "I am simply attending to General Valter's needs." She flashed a sensuous smile at Valter and the barmaid called Alyssa scowled darkly at her words.

"And his comforts, I see," she chaffed nastily, motioning to Ellen's sprawled leg over Valter's body. An unreadable impression flared in her sienna brown eyes as Ellen intentionally allowed the hem of her dress to slide back, bearing a gracious amount of skin. "_Ellen!_"

"Jealous, Alyssa?" countered the said maiden, a devious aspect adorning her creamy visage. Alyssa opened her mouth to furiously retort to her challenge when Valter silenced her attempt with a lazy wave of his hand.

"Ladies, ladies, please don't fight amongst yourselves. I assure you both there is plenty to go around." The Moonstone half-heartedly examined Alyssa and as if on cue, the young waitress flipped a few chocolate tresses behind her shoulders, presuming to flaunt her voluptuous figure in front of him and an unhappy Ellen. Sensing her moment to shine, Alyssa predatorily sashayed behind Valter's chair, a rapturous yet wicked beam dancing across her face. Encircling her arms around his neck she leaned forward until her mouth was next to his ear and then playfully nipped on his earlobe.

Selena never experienced the urge to maim someone so much in her entire life. _Oh, how my fingers itch to throttle some fragile female necks!_

"Does that satisfy you a little, milord?" Alyssa droned temptingly into Valter's ear, tenderly caressing the sides of his alabaster countenance. "If not, I can perform some other…_exotic_ deeds that shall surely quench your desires." She tilted her head sideways and exhaled deeply, overtly displaying her voluminous bosoms nearly bursting out the bodice of her gown, unwittingly imitating the selfsame action her love rival executed awhile ago. The blonde mage knight couldn't decide to either snort in disgust or chuckle amusingly at the two women's ostentatious fawning over Valter. Really, did they have any idea how ridiculous and frivolous they appeared?

"Nay, nay! He's with me!" Ellen protested vehemently and both girls shot death glares at each other over the Moonstone's head.

"Really, Ellen?" Alyssa questioned acridly, her mouth curling up into a nasty sneer, "I believe he's more than you can possibly handle. I, on the other hand, am perfectly up to the task." She smiled prettily at Valter, who in return, smirked.

Selena's grip on the tankard tightened. Damn that man!

"_Swift, blazing flag of the regiment_

_Eagle with crest of red and gold,_

_These men were born to drill and die_

_Point for them the virtue of slaughter_

_Make plain to them the excellence of killing _

_A field where a thousand corpses lie."_

As the two barmaids eagerly and viciously fought over their rights to be with Valter, Selena decided it was to her best interest to avert her attention from this unsavory scene and fixate her focus onto the fireplace behind them. Sapphire eyes intensely bored figurative, phantasmic holes at the flickering jasmine and garnet flames, crackling elatedly and sparks flew carelessly from the earthen hearth. Suddenly noticing the closed distance between the two obsequious maidens and the fire, a wicked, ingenious idea planted itself in Selena's head. Covering one hand over her mouth to avoid detection, the Fluorspar swiftly and subtly muttered the proper incantation. The vehement fire exploded briefly and sputtered out a few embers, balefully landing on the hem of both Ellen and Alyssa's dresses, igniting a tiny fiery wave of inferno. Both maids convulsively withdrew from Valter, screeching at the top of their lungs while feebly assaying to smother the flames with towels or other scraps of material nearby. Selena wore a small but extremely pleased smile on her face as she intently watched the two girls squawk and flail about like a flock of hyperventilating birds.

_I never esteemed I would take such pleasure in this spectacle yet oddly enough, I am. Perhaps after their "incident of misfortune" those two tarts will cease to be such a nuisance and return to their jobs, like they were _suppose_ to. _

"What was that all about?"

Swerving her head towards the speaker, Selena was unexpectedly confronted via a pair of subfusc eyes, a wild mane of midnight blue and black, and the pale visage of one very regaled wyvern knight. Partially taken aback by the abrupt proximity his presence created, Selena swiftly composed herself accordingly and bestowed him an inquisitive, bemused look. "Are you referring to those two barmaids who were almost roasted into the next item on the menu? Merely an accident, I presume. They were rather too nigh to the hearth."

Valter snorted incredulously, obsidian orbs curiously analyzing Selena and her sangfroid, unnerving her slightly. Especially after noticing the piqued, fomenting luminesce currently flaming torrentially inside those diabolical pools of darkness and occultism.

"Not much of a liar, are you?" the Moonstone replied mirthfully, humor dancing all across his face.

"What are you talking about?" Selena demanded fiercely, trying steadfastly to keep her emotions under control and out of discernment. Snickering, Valter leaned in forward, an insidious gleam within his atrous pupils as he neared himself towards Selena till they were a hair breadth away. Breath lodged in her throat, Selena tentatively swallowed the air back down to ease the ardent tension percolating inside her gut. "Valter, what is amiss?"

The said wyvern general quirked an intrigued brow, replying, "I should be asking the same of you, wench. That peeved glower you were shooting at Ellen and Alyssa was remarkably fearsome. I was beginning to think your basilisk glare would incinerate them instead of the flames themselves."

"The fire catching their gowns has nothing to do with me." Selena demurred tenaciously, albeit fully aware her words were a down-right lie. Unfortunately, Valter immediately perceived the canard for his lips curled up into a devilish, sadistic grin.

"Oh, really?" he questioned huskily, his mouth gently brushing against her ear. "Is there something you'd like to inform me on, dear Selena?" He inched even closer, foraying all personal boundaries and crushing his chest up against her own, causing her heart skip a beat and then pulsate furiously.

"As a matter of fact, there is. I want**you**_ to get off me_!" Ending her proclamation with a caustic hiss, she tried jabbing Valter with her elbow. Much to her dismay, he caught her privy attack and simply thrust her arm aside.

"Sorry, minx, but no can do." Truculent notions brewing, Selena seriously craved to strangle him right then and there with her bare hands.

"Valter. Remove. Yourself. **Now**." she menaced direly, dangerously locking her lapis lazuli onto his paramount gaze.

"Or what?" Valter taunted, his beguiling baritone switching from an amusing tone to a more seductive one. "Please, enough with the threats, Selena. I thought we took care of that little quagmire _days_ ago."

Selena sent him a pointed glare, sapphire pupils flashing vindictively. "You mean _you_ took care of the issue by _kissing_ me!"

"Ah, I was wondering when you would bring the topic up. Is that why you nearly toasted those two lovely serving maids, because you desired another repeat of that transaction?" As if to tease her some more, Valter chastely grazed his lips against her fair skin, frissions rippling up and down her spine. "That can be arranged." The sensational, prurient assurance laced with his dark words ignited a fervent spark inside Selena's soul. She twitched dubiously from his ominous sentence, rapidly plotting a stratagem that could weasel her out of this precarious conundrum.

"Valter, don't start forming assumptions—"

Instantly, Valter eclipsed his lips over her parted ones, effectively muffling her attempts of reasoning with him. Dipping his tongue into her mouth, he swirled her into a molten whirlpool of consuming, passionate fire. A wave of exhilaration washed over the feisty mage knight as their bodies suddenly become molded together and Valter amplified his fiery, lusty ministrations. Selena could feel his fingers deftly roam her body while he drove himself deeper into her, firmly weighing his manhood against her abdomen, hip connecting hip. Withdrawing from the searing kiss Valter then buried his face into the crook of her neck, taking a whiff of her natural incense in which galvanized his libido towards incalculable heights. Growling, the Moonstone eagerly brought his mouth to Selena's neck and tasted her sweet, delectable flesh from the hungry flick of his tongue. All Selena could do during the smoldering carnality was to arch her head back and bite down on her lip to suppress a moan threatening to escape. She barely even heard the female singer drew the song to a close during this time of ferocious ardor.

"_Mother whose heart hung humble as a button_

_On the bright splendid shroud of your son,_

_Do not weep._

_War is kind."_

"Valter," the Fluorspar whispered breathlessly, coercing another moan down her throat as the nefarious wyvern knight wantonly darted his tongue around the whorls of her right ear, "we really shouldn't behaving like this, especially in front a public place and our soldiers nonetheless—"

Once again, she was cut off via Valter but done a purely different method. Removing himself off Selena quicker than one could feasibly imagine, he then grabbed one of her arms and unyieldingly pulled her through the reveling horde of warriors and civilians alike, shaping a lucid path for them to transverse across with only minor hassles.

"I understand completely. We shall retire to my chambers." he told her huskily, voice rife with sexual promise and gratification. Selena's eyes snapped wide open and she shook her head around violently.

"That wasn't what I meant! You can't be serious!"

Whether he ignored her protests or didn't hear over the clamor deriving from the _Gorgon's Eye_ occupants, he steered them from the center of the gala and into the darkening hallways of the inn. All attempts of further objections died in her throat when Valter ushered her directly into his quarters and closed the door forebodingly behind them.

"Valter," she began as he approached her predatorily, "I don't believe you understood me back there, at our table—"

"Oh, I did," Valter interrupted placidly, though his wild, sinister eyes were a complete contrast to his suave timbre, "I simply pretended not to just to agitate you." As soon as the admission left his mouth, a complacent, satanical smirk shadowed his alabaster features and the Moonstone crossed his arms in anticipation for his peer's reaction.

Thoroughly digesting Valter's confession, Selena's eyebrows furrowed in deep contemplation. "Wait, wait, let me get this straight. You knew what I meant all along but feigned miscomprehension merely to unsettle me?"

"That sounds about right." Valter replied indifferently, now donning a semi-bored aspect. Shaking her head Selena sat down on the foot of the mattress, quite relieved she wasn't stuck in a rock and a hard place.

"You're impossible." she finally retorted after a couple of seconds and he chuckled briefly.

"Likewise, wench." Despite his rough words, Selena smiled amusingly.

"Now that we are alone and away from prying eyes and ears, you can tell me about your family, the Schwarzesherz–or as some dub your kin: the House of the Spider."

All schadenfreude and relish in Valter dispersed instantly and his normally ebony eyes were converted into a demonic, unearthly garnet hue. His face became emotionless and the muscles in his jaw tightened considerably as if he was strenuously harnessing his inner displeasure and umbrage from exploding right in front of her.

"That would be a solid '_no_', Selena."

The said mystical general phlegmatically cocked her head at him, an intrusive glint in her dark cerulean pupils.

"Why not?" she inquired, leaving the bedside and assertively approached Valter, who in return, narrowed his eyes perniciously onto her advancing form. His arms portentously slid down to his sides, hands clenching into taut fists when Selena was nearly a chair's length away. "If your past with the Schwarzesherzs is so agonizing, Valter, then the best course would be to tell someone, just to unleash all the dolor and pain you have been bottling up inside of you for countless years." Steeling herself to continue, Selena treaded closer and closer to Valter till they were at the exact distance they had been in the saloon awhile ago. She could hear her pulse hammering deafeningly in her ears as she lifted her hands up to Valter's face, resolutely locking her eyes perilously into the Moonstone's penetrating, calamitous gaze.

"I can fathom time cannot heal some scars but if you simply unburdened yourself from all the harrow and misery your family has thrust upon you, I believe the pain would alleviate, even if just a little."

Valter's hands shot up from below and viciously latched onto her wrists, unwittingly pulling her towards him. His ethiopian orbs, now maelstroms of ferocity and icy rage, singed with such memorizing conflagration Selena was partly worried his mere scrutiny would practically burn her alive. Valter lowered his head towards her, his ill-begotten, livid stare still engaged with the blonde haired warrior's obstinate, defiant survey. The tip of his nose momentarily bumped against her own and she felt like Valter was assaying to pierce her soul, discern any animus she might be concealing from him, with those formidable abysmal orbs.

"Why do you even _care_?" he whispered harshly in her ear, tightening his stentorian grip on her hands. "Do you take me for a fool, Selena?" Shaking her head rigorously, Selena fearlessly stood her ground.

"No, I don't. I am only offering you—"

"Pity?" snarled the Moonstone, his nostrils flaring at the mere concept, "I don't need your bloody sympathy nor do I _want_ it." Instead of grousing right back, Selena simply increased the proximity between them, refusing to cower or back down from Valter's venomous, scathing rejection.

"You are mistaken, Valter. I was never offering you any pity." she explained rationally, ignoring the throes prickling all around her wrists due to Valter's merciless constriction. "I was simply giving you compassion. That is all. Pure compassion." Taking a bold risk, she leaned inward, her lips dangerously next to the corner of his mouth. What she murmured next would break down all barriers surrounding the Moonstone's sordid days of yore.

"Stop tormenting yourself so…please."

Closing his eyes, Valter desperately tried to harden himself from her beseeching statement yet even he realized his efforts were all in vain. Never in his life, especially when he was a lad living in the Schwarzesherz House and after the unsavory encounter with Duessel's accursed lance, did anyone ever grant him a hand of assistance or a simple gesture of kindness towards him. Those actions were strange, completely foreign to him and Selena's tenacious benevolence seemed to loosen his restraints. She was right–for too long he carried the tragedy of his parents with him, burying all the agony, resentment, and indignation inside of him till the execrable emotions festered and healed the wounds in a heinous, precarious fashion. There were scars afflicted on his flesh, mind, and soul by his lurid past since they had truly never been properly taken care of. God's wounds, _he_ hadn't been really taken care of either. Subsequently, all his years of torture and Gethsemane were eating him alive, slowly deteriorating every essence of his being and exacerbating the emotions with excruciating, pain-staking skill.

And now he was the paying the price.

Opening his eyelids, he cast his tempestuous eyes back down at Selena, encountering her decisive, astute orbs, precipitately caught in her scintillating azure gaze. Ensnared, trapped, imprisoned. She captivated him and for the first time in a myriad of years, he capitulated to someone's wish.

"…Very well. Do you wish to sit down?"

Flabbergast, Selena nodded wordlessly and settled herself on his cot, patiently awaiting for Valter to commence. At last she could apprehend what lurked behind those sable pupils of his and descry all the plaintive tirades and pathos covertly shrouded behind his savage, bloodthirsty mystique. Finally, the occult mask would crumble and reveal the jaded, scarred past of a tortured soul.

"My family, the Schwarzesherzs, have been recognized for their strict tutelage in intermarriage so the purity of the ancestral bloodline can be preserved and never be tainted by outsiders. Inasmuch, multiple births were commonly encouraged and troths were frequently finalized left and right, from cousin to cousin, uncle to niece, sister to brother."

"Were you ever engaged?" she asked tactfully, curiosity getting a hold of her. The prospect of Valter betrothed seemed so profound, so outrageous but this man was always full of surprises.

A bitter, wry grin twisted itself onto the Moonstone's lips and he shook his head. "No, because even as a child I was bit of a black sheep and a beast; and unlike the majority of my family members, I wasn't of 'pureblood'. No one wanted me mixing with the others and spreading my tainted, filthy blood."

"**Begone from us, you rotten little half-blood! You're lucky Lord Milo permitted you to keep the family name after that act of rebellion your pathetic, worthless mother pulled." jeered his aunt, Penelope, as she worked diligently at her knitting. Eyeing Valter suspiciously, she stretched a protective arm over her young son Evan as if the mere presence of the wild, abused pariah would befoul the tiny toddler's purity. **

**As if **_**she**_** and the rest of the household were any purer than he.**

"How did that happen? I mean, why were you the only one different from the others of your kin?" She could have sworn a flammeous glimmer of animosity in the wyvern knight's eyes before fading back to its original dusky shade. Evidently she had just treaded on dangerous, sensitive grounds with those questionnaires. In spite of that, Valter answered her inquiries with crisp apathy.

"My fate of being a half-blood Schwarzesherz was primarily due a portentous decision made by mother years ago. What she did and how my great-grandfather Milo, the leader of the Schwarzesherz House, treated her afterwards is precisely why I refused Clark's paltry invite from him." Selena nodded listlessly, recalling his over-due explanation of his cousin's abrupt arrival to their camp.

_Whatever iniquity his great-grandfather had afflicted against his mother must have been vile, since Valter refuses to visit him at his deathbed. _

"You see, another rule my kinsfolk demands for is utter obedience from those lower than them. Milo especially; he was constantly obsessed in confirming his family members' absolute compliance to him and him alone. Highly intolerant of any form of revolts or challenges to his leadership, Milo reigned like a despotic dictator."

He paused momentarily, atrous pupils glazed with a far-off look. "You can imagine his fury when he discovered that my mother was impregnated by a common mercenary she had encountered and rendezvoused with for several months."

Selena's cerulean pupils dilated considerably, erstwhile envisioning the horror and cruelty the poor woman must have undergone from the aforementioned tyrannical great-grandfather. "Oh no…" she whispered dolefully, "what befell her?"

"Well, for starters, my great-grandfather issued a string of jaundiced threats at my mother if she didn't tell him my father's name. She rejected his decrees every time and her impudence infuriated him to no end. My mother constantly made sure my father was far away from Milo's egregious reach and that the withering old buzzard wouldn't send some of his soldiers to hunt him down and kill him. She even begged my father not to clandestinely visit her after my birth–she _that _was fearful for his life. Also, she was revolting against Milo and the council's mandate that she should marry her brother, Edward, so some of the family traditions could still be carried out in her legacy. The stormy family feud dragged on for many a year, until I turned ten. Then all hell broke loose."

"**Take a hold of my hand, Valter! We must leave quickly without anyone noticing us!" The said youth grabbed her outstretched hand and unyieldingly held on, resolved to never let go till his mother said so.**

"**Where are we going, Mother?" **

**Without turning her head to face him, she assertively replied, "Some place better than this."**

"My mother planned on eloping with my father and together, all three of us would live a cottage he had inherited from an old friend of his who had recently passed away. Of course, we never even arrived to our destination where my parents would be conjugated in privy. Milo caught wind of my mother's intentions and dispatched a squad of his men to ensnare us. He even came himself to witness our captivity."

**Three people, a man, a woman, and a child stared tentatively at the genteel, authoritative yet callous old man on horseback, his fathomless caliginous eyes that possessed no warmth or joy gauging their crumpled, forlorn forms. With a head tilt to his side, he coldly uttered, "Grab the boy, he is still of value to me." **

**Frantic, fierce protests by the two adults filled the air as they obstinately assayed to prevent the soldiers from snatching their precious son away from them. "No! Valter! Don't take my baby!" screamed the sobbing female, perse ringlets divinely framing her heart-shaped face as she clawed and kicked at the males who would **dare **to steal her child from her. Her lover, the ebony haired mercenary, dexterously elbowed a couple men in the temple and stomach and unsheathed his blade in case the unfavorable situation shifted into a complete disaster. **

**Unfortunately, the soldiers of the Schwarzesherz House overcame the couple and Valter was brusquely dragged away from his parents and tethered to the saddle of dappled grey colt. His mother twirled around to face her grandfather, obsidian orbs streaming with tiny, delicate crystal droplets and cri de coeur. **

"**Grandfather!" she lamented feebly, hacking sobs lodged in her throat as she spoke, "Please have mercy on my son Valter! He has nothing to do with this!" **

**Lord Milo, supreme ruler of the House of the Spider, glowered irately at his great-granddaughter, a repulsed scowl contorting his archaic features in a rather grotesque, horrendous way. "You have disgraced me, Gilda, yet I will allow you to come home alongside Valter with a sliver of your dignity intact as long as you agree to obey my each and every order from now on." **

**Valter's mother, Gilda, quickly glanced over her shoulder towards her lover who was po-faced during the whole exchange. "What about Ova? Valter needs his father, too." **

**Milo's seething scowl was replaced with a malicious sneer. "I am offering you to be with your son, Gilda. Do not test my generosity or patience. Remember you are bound to me, just as Valter is, and the rest of the Schwarzesherz House." He pierced Gilda with his uncompromising scrutiny, crossing one arm over the other. "What say you?" **

**Tilting her head up defiantly, Gilda took one final look at her lover and her son before uttering her answer. Embroiled with aplomb and fractiousness she had never conceived to be possible, Gilda leveled her eyes at the same distance of her great-grandfather's and the definitive announcement departed her lips. **

"**You will never sway dominance over me. I shall never be bounded to the will of the Schwarzesherz House any more." **

**An expression of sheer outrage and vitriolic contempt washed over Milo as she brazenly and openly rejected his offer. Jaw twitching furiously, he acridly retorted, "Then you have doomed your son to be an orphan forevermore, you thick-skulled, frivolous chit!" Subsequently, he motioned for his troops to commence the assault and the warriors fell upon the death-marked couple like wolves to a hapless, fatally wounded deer. **

"_He didn't_!" Selena cried out hotly, bolting upright from the bed. "He condemned his granddaughter–your mother–, his own flesh and blood, to death?!" Valter nodded stiffly, eyes now shifting their meticulous gaze at her.

Hands curling into rigid, potent fists, Selena clenched her teeth haphazardly at the indignation of the outcome. "Why— How could your great-grandfather initiate that despicable command, commit such a heinous crime?!" Her star sapphire pupils blazed with such unwavering ire and incalculable sinew that rendered Valter speechless. Why would she allow herself to be so riled up over a gross injustice inflicted upon his parents and youth years ago? It was _him_ after all and no one gave flying fig about him. In everyone's view, he was an insane, bloodthirsty monster who relished in the misfortune and tribulation of others…which was partly true. Yet they claimed he was heartless and much as he had fun being an evil bastard, he would have to disagree. He did have heart–it just had been hardened, blackened, and distorted over the years and also as result from wielding Duessel's possessed lance into battle.

Anonymous emotions running rampage through his mind and body, Valter approached her and irrevocably brushed a golden lock of hair away from Selena's visage, tucking the stubborn tendril behind her ears. Selena's vehement tirades came to a screeching halt at the tender deed and the mage knight peered up at him questioningly, mazarine eyes akin to a dichromatic ocean pinning him with a profound stare. He retracted his hand away from her ear and lowered the arm back to his side, no words ever leaving his lips. _What was I even thinking, performing that ridiculous act?_

"Valter…" she whispered lucidly while eyeing the said wyvern general curiously, "…you're not alone. I too lost my mother when I was young." She paused, contemplating whether to continue or not. After gauging Valter's pale, stalwart countenance and the way his melanic eyes silently prompted her to explain in further details, Selena resumed her plaintive anecdote with restored brio.

"My village had always been poor and subjected to many grueling trials yet when I was twelve-years-old, one of the hardest, most baleful plagues hit us. Crops were rendered infected and sordid, therefore useless. Preceding the crop failure, countless of people's livelihoods went up in smoke when there was a paucity of money and goods to be exchanged, bought, or sold hence they packed what little they possessed and left. Those who stayed behind were at the mercy of poverty, famine, and the recent criminals who risen up from the refuse to impose their dominance over my home."

"We had no law enforcers or regulations and we could barely pay for the emperor's taxes. Thus, we were easy quarry for any crime lord or dastard seeking to wreak havoc and chaos unto a tiny, helpless hamlet. My mother, desperate to earn a living for both of us, was coerced to lower herself into one of the cheapest, deplorable occupations the village had to offer."

Valter instantly construed her implication: Prostitution.

"What happened after your mother…engaged her new position?" he prodded gently, noticing the sudden shimmer of faded yet indelible dolor in her usually vivacious lapis lazuli orbs. As if his question triggered a long suppressed and hidden memory, a distant, reserved expression settled over Selena's visage and she continued her tale, only this time she acted like she was under a trance. It seemed all her surreal childhood recollections were coming back in full force, determined to haunt and plague her for as long as possible.

"We managed to get by from the money she earned and some of the meager, trivial jobs I found on occasion. However, everything took a turn for a worse when one of my mother's 'clients' waltzed straight into our cottage."

"**Hey, tramp! Get yer nice little arse over here!" roared the enormous stranger as he flung open the door, his muzzy voice akin to rumbling thunderclouds and stormy gales. "Hurry, ye trollop! I'm busy man and haven't got the time to waste any more seconds waiting on you!" **

"Who was the man?" Valter noticed Selena stiffened slightly in reference to the louse yet she answered him anyway.

"His name was Balor and he was one of main criminals reigning over my village. He profited by selling smuggled goods and alcohol. He had a private team of cutthroats at his beck and call and a couple of guards to serve as protection, for he just as many enemies as customers. Balor came to our house because my mother 'owed' him a favor hence he stopped by to collect his '_payment_', as he called it."

"**Give me what you owe, whore," snarled Balor to a tall, slender woman supporting luscious waves of shimmering burnet hair. The willowy lady nodded meekly, wringing her hands together tremulously as she approached the heavy-set man.**

"**Yes, of course, Balor." **

"But before my mother could uphold her end of the deal, Balor realized I too was in the room. Needless to say, he was rather _fascinated _with me."

"**Ye never mentioned having a daughter, Lucie…" Balor muttered, casting his curious eyes onto the young, wary Selena. "She's pretty one, no doubt. Almost fairer than ye, Lucie."**

**The malefactor uncouthly approached Selena, who stood rooted in place and jutted her chin up in defiance. The crime lord seemed to find her impudence regaling for a dry chortle tumbled out from his fleshy lips. "A plucky one, aren't ye? I like that." He grabbed her chin and swept his lascivious scrutiny over her ramrod straight form, undressing her with his lusty, salacious eyes. **

"**How much with her?" Balor demanded without turning to Selena's mother, his lubricate gaze continuing to rest on Selena. Panic leaped in both mother and daughter's face and Selena looked beseechingly towards her mother who looked paler than snow. **

"**S-She's off-limits, B-Balor. My d-daughter is not in this practice." **

**Balor sniggered, relinquishing his hold over Selena's chin. "Not in the practice? Lucie, my darling, you're going to have to be smarter than this. Think of all the money ye could receive if she was up for the market. I know plenty of chaps who only find sexual gratification in youths. Selena would be perfect for them." He glanced back at Selena and took a strand of her golden-blonde hair that escaped from her ill-kept braid. "Especially with this hair. My, I never have seen such a pretty shade of yellow before." **

**Lucie bore her azure orbs onto the malefic smuggler, her features wan and leucochroic yet a burgeoning air of adamant surround her now. "Selena will not engage in that business. You can either take what I owe you or leave." **

**Ominous silence encased the dwelling just as soon as those fulminating words left her lips. **

"**Oh-no, Mother," whispered Selena fearfully, looking back and forth from her mother to Balor, who resembled an overripe tomato. Predicting the pandemonium that would soon unravel, she dreaded Balor's response.**

"Let me guess. He wasn't at all thrilled with your mother refusing him."

Chuckling mirthlessly, the Fluorspar nodded. "So much he retaliated against her."

**A horrifying, baleful bellow wracked the confinements of the tiny cottage and portly gullion raged himself against Lucie; his bulging, neurotic pupils alight with inane fury. **

"**Ye little harridan!" he hollered, wrapping his massive fingers around Lucie's slender throat and lifting her off the ground, "Ye think you can defy me, troll! You're nothing but refuse and filth! You'll never be anything but fresh meat for me and my boys. Can you get that through that silly head of yers?" **

"**Leave her alone, you're killing her!" Selena screamed, pelting Balor with her furious, importunate fists, "LET GO OF MY MOTHER!" **

**Growling, Balor sharply kicked Selena aside and she was slammed into a table, knocking her head brusquely against the wood's surface. Groggy and disorientated, Selena tried to reach her mother once more. Another swift kick in the face from Balor's boot halted her tangent right then and there. **

**Feebly, Selena endeavored to lift her battered and bruised body up yet with no avail. All her energy, all her strength seemed to be drained from her and she was forced to listen and watch her mother flail and struggle for air, the shallow, ragged breaths foretelling what was yet to come. **

"**Why won't you release her? Mother did nothing wrong to you…" she hissed bitterly, tears stinging her eyes. Suddenly, her mother's gasps ceased and the pregnant silence shrouded the house once more. Selena gazed up and to her utter horror, watched Balor unceremoniously drop her mother to the ground, discarding the lifeless woman like a useless rag doll. **

"**Stupid woman. Should have known better than to argue with me," grumbled Balor, knocking the dead female's arm away from him, "though it's such a shame, she had the look of angel." As if he remembered Selena was still in the room he turned around, an oily grin contorting itself across his blotchy features. **

"**But on the bright side, I have ye, my pet." **

**Sheer repulsion and undiluted wrath coursed through Selena's veins, churning and bubbling with inexplicable potency. Hatred she had never experienced before seized her heart and mind, whispering dark but wonderful words to her, promising her strength, success, and **_**vengeance**_**. Licking her lips, Selena permitted those raw, tempestuous notions to consume her, relishing how she would avenge her mother's death. Shaking in rage, Selena collected herself from the sullied floor and stood erect in front of a slightly nonplussed Balor, the fiery incantation fixed in her mind. **

_**Revenge! Revenge! **_**her mind thundered at her yet Selena remained poised and apathetic, waiting for her prey to strike first. **

"**Well, looks like ye have to take yer mother's place at the brothel, girl," snickered Balor as he reached out for Selena, oblivious to the subtle movement of the female's lips. "Come here, pet, I won't hurt ye." **

**He was answered with a relentless, convulsive bombardment of Fire. **

"**For my mother!" Selena cried out vindictively, showering more throes of inferno towards her antagonist. Balor's shrieks of detriment and misery stimulated Selena to continued her fire attacks, fueling her animus and feeding her newly wrought schadenfreude. Soon the whole cottage was bathed in a rich, coquelicot glow and blazed in the flames of her revenge. Perceiving Balor wouldn't survive her vicious transgression Selena agilely ran out of the burning house, never looking back as Balor's agonized howls were drowned out by the crackling fire. The caliginous, stodgy smoke behind her billowed out laggardly into the dreary bleak sky, reducing Selena's childhood to ash. **

A tender stroke against her cheek awoke Selena from her retrospective stupor. She stared back at the arcane man who held her in his arms. He must have enfolded her while she was deeply engrossed with the finale of the tale; silently soothing her while she braved the death of her mother for the second time.

Wordlessly, she rested her head against Valter's chest, contently listening to the rhythmic pulsates of his beating heart. It didn't feel strange for her to have her arms wrapped his torso and his to hers nor was the concept of them two being together, alone in each other's company. In fact, she felt at ease, tranquil, _safe_ even. He knew what it was like to experience pain and bereavement. Albeit their grief wasn't wholly the same (for no such grief isn't), he understood her loss.

Yet their paths were so vastly different. Days after her mother's demise, Emperor Vigarde delivered aid and provisions to her hamlet and purged the region of criminals and other miscreants. His magnanimous deed towards her village reignited her belief in humanity and her purpose in living hence she vowed to serve her emperor and payback his generosity with steadfast fidelity. She enrolled herself into the Grado military and eventually encountered the amiability and kindness her late mother had always granted her. As for Valter…

He had no one.

Selena promptly comprehended how Duessel's cursed lance fully functioned now. The weapon could induce madness to those who wield into the battle yet the madness would only come if the wielder himself possessed a past dark enough for the demon within the lance to exploit for its own sadistic pleasures. The monster would first foray itself into the wielder's mind and coerce its victim to relive all their worst, execrable memories while attempting to overtake its target's body. The satanical creature would then twist all iniquities playing inside the bearer's brain and unleash them to wreck havoc upon the victim. As a final act, the demon would then stamp its personality onto the wielder, hoping by this deplorable action the wielder's mind will snap and crumble, giving way for the fiend to enter the body and gain control. Unfortunately, when the demon came across Valter, the wyvern knight was strong enough to resist the noxious powers of the djinn and survive the ordeal–but with a terrible price.

The mage knight tilted her head to glance back up at Valter, who returned her gaze with equal perception. Azure and sable eyes interlocking, they did not speak for awhile. Pleasant, reassuring silence hovered over them as they stared discerningly at each other, endeavoring to piece together every puzzle about the other with just one simple scrutiny.

"You're not alone, Valter. I'm here," Selena told him softly, placing her head against him again, "…just remember that." She closed her eyes, his steady, potent breathing lull her towards sleep's whimsical embrace.

Pulling the sleeping female closer to him than ever, Valter hesitantly brought his lips to her forehead, briefly savoring the warmth he sampled from the chaste kiss. The sensation tore through his body like a capricious tsunami of redemption, gifting him a little taste of heaven. He never realized how sweet and delectable paradise could be. Until now.

Ridding himself from those ardent, intoxicating notions Valter gathered the slumbering Selena in both arms and carried her to his bed, carefully setting her down against the plain yet downy mattress and pillow. A rebellious wheaten tendril flopped in front her pallid countenance, bantering Valter with its alluring charms. Inwardly grousing at his own inability to resist the temptation, Valter flicked the wavy blonde ringlet away, faintly whispering, "I know, Selena. I know."

He could have sworn a hint of a smile graced her lips.

* * *

"_Wilt thou go with me, sweet maid_

_Say, maiden, wilt thou go with me_

_Through the valley depths of shade,_

_Of night and dark obscurity,_

_Where the path hath lost its way,_

_Where the sun forgets the day,_

_Where there's nor life not light to see,_

_Sweet maiden, wilt thou go with me?"_

_**-An Invite to Eternity,**_ John Claire

* * *

Color Glossary:

Smalt- deep blue

Aubergine- dark purple

Burnet- dark brown

Amaranthine- deep purple-red color

Subfusc- a somber, dark or dusky color

Ethiopian- black

Flammeous- flame-colored

Atrous- jet black

Perse- dark blue

Mazarine- rich blue

Melanic- black; very dark

Leucochroic- white or pale colored

Coquelicot- brilliant red; poppy red

(Let me know if I missed any other obscure colors.)

Whew, that one was long; frankly, I wasn't expecting this chapter to be so lengthy until I reached the two barmaids flirting with Valter (which was a hoot to write by the way) and all the events after that. Delving into both Valter _and_ Selena's past was another factor why it took so long for this chapter to come out but in the end, I'm extremely proud of how both pasts turned out.

Gilda means 'sacrifice' in Italian and Ove is Scandinavian for 'blade'. The meanings behind their names are apparent, hopefully.

As I prepare to transmute out, you can review, critique, do what you normally, etc. Flame and an overly ecstatic Riev shall perform his break dancing routine with the song "I Like To Move It" to you. He's been _dying_ to display his "talents" to someone other than me.

One more note: The challenge is still on. Adieu then!

_:SpeedDemon315:_


	3. A: A Confession To An Adversary

**My Damned Soul Needs Fire, My Damsel Breaths Fire**

**Summary: **(Support conversations between Valter and Selena) At first, their dialogues were nothing but bouts of wordplay, verbal swords hacking convulsively at each other. Yet as time worn on, they sought out each other's company because only they knew the other straight to the core. (ValterxSelena)

**Support A:** _A Confession To An Adversary_

**A/N:** This chapter's title derives from the Evans Blue song (three guess which one and the first two don't count) "My Damsel: A Confession To An Adversary". Just an FYI in case you're wondering why I bother with this.

Text:

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

_'Wyvern Speech'_

**Flashback**

Poems/Sonnets:

"Sonnets" by William Shakespeare

"Dirge" by James Shirley

"Maud: A Monodrama, Part II" by Lord Alfred Tennyson

**Disclaimer: Please, if Sacred Stones was truly mine do you really think I'd be writing this?**

* * *

_"Not marble, nor the gilded monuments_

_Of princes shall outlive the power of this rhyme;_

_But you shall shine more bright in these contents_

_Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time._

_When wasteful war shall statues overturn_

_And broils root out the work of masonry,_

_Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn_

_The living record of your memory._

_'Gainst death and all oblivious enmity_

_Shall you pace forth: your praise shall still find room_

_Even in the eyes of all posterity _

_That wear this world out to the ending doom_

_So till the judgment that yourself arise_

_You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes."_

**_-Sonnets,_** William Shakespeare

* * *

Hooves mercilessly hammered against the sodden fertile ground, the desperation for unearthly agility transparent in the steed's sporadic, capricious pace and the grimace etched on its rider's face. Wisps of blonde tresses fanned out in front of the soldier's peripheral vision and she half-heartedly blew the strands out of her lapis lazuli eyes, restraining herself not to glimpse behind her to see if the enemy lost sight of her.

_How did they perceive I would be riding in this region; my departure to the Grado Keep was in privy. None of this remotely makes any sense!_

Urging Sif, her atrous destrier, to quicken its gallop, Selena gripped the reins with more vigor than before. Distant shouts permeated the air and she gritted her teeth in frustration, aggravated that her adversaries managed to discover her location again. _Heads are going to roll if this keeps up. Those curs are sorely testing my limits! _

"There she is! Don't let her out of your sight like last time!" yelled a strangely familiar masculine voice but Selena had trouble placing a name on the fluid, oily tenor. Selena rode strenuously over the viridian and chartreuse eminences and down the declivities, furiously wishing she was fleeing in a dingle rather than a down. Dingles could furnish her with extensive trees and dense thickets as protection and seclusion. Downs, on the other hand, provided no such entity; they only left her out in the open for divergent assaults.

A troupe of cavalry entered her peripheral vision from the left and cut across the celadon field, attempting to obstruct her path. With august aptitude and sangfroid Selena jerked the reins and veered Sif to a sharp right, thundering swiftly past the cavalrymen.

"What is wrong with you imbeciles?! She's just one person, one_ woman_, for pity's sake!" The agitated, seething tone belonging to the commander in charge of the operation struck a chord in Selena's memory and realization of her prime aggressor's identity dawned over her.

"Clark Schwarzesherz!" she hissed, eluding a Sleep incantation cast by a sequestered spell caster far out of reach. _What does that cad want with me?_

"Supplant her off from the main road! Diminish all her options of escape!" Clark's desperate voice rang raucously through out the ranks of the Schwarzesherz soldiers and caromed all around the vacuous heath.

"I'll be damned before I allow that to betide." Selena muttered frostily, briskly hurtling a levin towards a stray cavalier. He frenetically toppled off his horse, producing a blood-curdling scream as he tumbled face-first into the tussock, never to get back up again. However, she could not savor her quick triumph for an armada of Pegasi riders descended upon her, lances jutted outwards in a bombastic attempt to coerce Selena to turn around and surrender to Clark and his men. Misfortunately, they blatantly underestimated Selena Fluorspar and her level of perseverance. The aerial warriors would soon learn their fatal error the hard, painful way.

Dodging all the mild assailments and erratic jabs and garnering a sufficient amount of distance betwixt her and the enemy riders, Selena eyed them mercilessly and raised her arms up ominously to the sky. Rapidly murmuring the mystical words she felt the electricity percolating inside her, the raw, exhilarating potency surging through her veins and evoking the adrenaline rush to consume and stimulate her. As the Pegasi riders attacked with the beating of their downy, albicant wings, Selena had completed her spell and was prepared to unleash her catastrophic paroxysm onto the doomed riders. Bolts of lightning shot mercurially out of her fingertips, zapping all ten of the aerial combaters with incredible ease. The opposing Pegasi knights hollered bloody murder while their albugineous mounts shrieked in utter agony as the bombardment of pernicious thunderbolts struck them down and silenced them one by one. All there was left of Selena's remorseless, quicksilver work was a grisly carnage of chard, steaming cadavers. The ferocious mage knight stolidly focused her attention to Clark and armament encasing him, ire boiling rigorously within her.

"So, Clark," she called out placidly, her voice echoing across the terrestrial vicinity yet she spoke as if he was right next to her, "do you still want to try me? There's no telling how many more soldiers you'll lose. I won't be so lenient on the next batch."

Clark's cold, regaled laughter answered back, clearly evincing his ostensible entertainment in her promise of death and calamity. "Such chilling, baleful words coming from the lips of such a feisty maiden. It's no wonder why he chose you." he stated sinisterly, appearing in front of his troops on a magnificent niveous stallion whose unadulterated color rivaled the deceased Pegasi's creamy coats. His sumptuous sepia cloak swayed majestically with the crisp, gentle breeze, interim susurration settling over them just like the calm before a storm.

"What are you talking about?" Selena demanded tonelessly, fixing the Elfire spell in her mind as a precaution. Clark's simper was practically audible.

"I'm referring to Valter and you. It's quite apparent how he is utterly fascinated in you." Taken aback by Clark's proclamation, Selena's stoic composure slipped slightly yet only for a moment prior to she regained her sangfroid.

"What nonsense is this?" she retorted acridly, sorely tempted to fry Clark where he stood. It had been awhile since she last scorched someone into a smoking pile of ash, the two barmaids on _Gorgon's Eye_ definitely did not count.

"Please, darling Selena, don't tell me you haven't notice the amorous attention my beastly cousin has been bestowing upon you lately? If I wouldn't have known any better I'd say he's enamored with you." Recalling the several kisses they shared, the _Gorgon's Eye_ incident, and the events subsequent to that, Selena inwardly shook herself free of the convoluted, intense images, scoffing at Clark's ludicrous presumption. The concept was outrageous, there was no possible way Valter would _ever_ harbor any degree of affinity for her. Yes, they gotten rather nigh in his quarters in the tavern but their relation seemed to be only based on terms of acquaintance. Perhaps he does view her as a close companion yet _that_ was all. …Wasn't there?

"I'm afraid you must be mistaken, Clark. Valter and I are merely generals, comrade-in-arms. Nothing more." Again, Clark guffawed, evidently finding the situation even more humorous than before.

"Oh my, you really haven't seen it? This is just too rich, simply too rich." he said jocosely, the simper widening every second. Selena dug her nails deeply into the reins, thoroughly irked by Clark's grating behavior.

"I am not in mood for your frivolous bantering, Clark, so either fight me or scurry back to your abysmal den." grounded out the now precarious mage knight, the Elfire codex teetering on her lashing, acerbic tongue.

Clark sighed in faux dejection, feigning sorrow because he didn't obtain a cordial answer from the Fluorspar. "You possess a sword for a tongue, Dame Selena," he stated smarmily, evoking an eye roll from the said female warrior, "then again, Valter always enjoys a sharp-tongued woman." Deciding enough idle chatter was spent and plenty of precious time had been squandered, Clark motioned for his next wave of legionnaires to commence the charge and beset Selena.

"Capture her unspoiled and your pay will be double!" manifested the pusillanimous aristocrat. Jovial, vociferous cheer rose from the rushing soldiers, sheer delight and avarice gleaming in their bloodshot eyes.

Selena ominously narrowed her eyes at the impending regiment, erstwhile Elfire propelling and exploding helter-skelter at the soldiers foolhardy enough to confront her so directly. "So the battle begins," she mused thusly, the moans and ear-splitting screams of men burning alive signaling the official commencement of the wayward skirmish.

* * *

Valter knew the minute he woke up and Selena was missing from his cot that something was horribly wrong. There was a portentous feeling inside his gut and he could sense an omen looming over him. His suspicions were irrefutably confirmed when he inquired the whereabouts of Selena Fluorspar from a soldier of his.

"She had received a missive directly from the emperor himself and was bidden to journey back to the Grado Keep for a crucial assignment," the wyvern rider had informed him which did naught except amplify the tense clenching in his stomach. Selena acquired no such message from Emperor Vigarde–or Prince Lyon, for that matter. He ascertained this de facto detail because before Prince Lyon sent him and Selena off to the borderlands of Grado and Frelia, the puppet prince had privately told him due to the chaotic circumstances he would solely contact them through esoteric, obtuse methods–and only if he truly needed their aid.

**"If I ever desire your caliber, I shall summon for you both to return to my side and you two can consign your most trusted and loyal soldier to take charge of the operation."**

The Silent Emperor only asked for Selena and that fact alone was enough to verify the regal letter was a counterfeit. Yet who would possess such a motive and the knowledge to forge such a subterfuge?

_Whoever the person is, he must have gleaned the economy of royalty and Emperor Vigarde or Prince Lyon's connections with his generals. This means—_

Epiphany washed over him akin to a crushing, devastating tsunami and the culprit's identity was clear as crystal: Clark. The Schwarzesherzs had forever been loyal subjects of the emperor. Before and after the war Vigarde always regarded them as a valuable asset to his ranks. Ergo anyone–specifically Clark–from that sordid house was apt with the services of the emperor. Clark was no warrior but like many of Schwarzesherz members, deception was of second nature to him. Fabricating a faux letter for Selena would be child's play on his part. And of course, Clark had unfinished business with him and unfortunately, the louse keenly perceived how to attract his attention via placing Selena's life in jeopardy.

One of Valter's hands curled into a lethal, taut fist and his jaw evoked a tic at the mere prospect of what Clark or any of his men could feasibly exert over Selena if she became their prisoner. Clark had inherited his father's, Maximillian, twisted, perverse mind hence the possibilities of Selena's torment were endless. Half the flagrant deeds would evolve rape and other acts of violation. For some peculiar, arcane reason, Valter simply forbade such an egregious transgression to befall Selena–especially if the deed was being committed by his deplorable family. He'd be damned first before he allows those milksops and miscreants sully her with their filthy, wretched hands. No one shall ever touch what was **his**.

Thoroughly glad Slivegio couldn't overhear his retrospections, Valter made his way to his platoon of wyvern riders. His innate instincts forewarning peril and dire tidings had just been proven. Now he had to take action and find Selena with all haste.

_The Schwarzesherzs already snatched my mother, my father, my whole life away from me–Selena is will not be dragged into their execrable affairs! Clark, the bloody bastard, has crossed me for the last time. When I see him again his head shall be mounted on my lance and then I'll send the severed head back to Milo as a farewell present._

"Yiavotch!" he beckoned sharply, snaring the attention of the said wyvern knight under his command.

"Yes, General Valter?" asked Yiavotch monotonously, rigorous discipline keeping him tall and erect yet unconditional fidelity shimmered blatantly in his caliginous eyes. Yiavotch was one of his most assiduous and trusted soldiers he could ever hope to have in his entourage of wyvern riders. The morel haired, rough-hewn legionnaire had steadfastly stood by his side since the day he was granted the title 'the Moonstone' and continued to serve his faithfully even after his fall from the general's rank and the sentence into exile. When he was rightfully restored to his proper panjandrum, Yiavotch was one of the first from his original regiment to return to him. All those reasons alone were why he was entrusting the position of leadership into his capable hands.

"Yiavotch, there's a quagmire that requests my undivided attention. Hence, I must depart and head southwest from here. You shall remain here, in my stead, while I am absent. Understood?"

Yiavotch nodded dutifully although there was a shadow of a half-grin on his smooth features. "I understand completely, General Valter. But forgive me if I pry… Your leave wouldn't have anything to do with the abrupt, perplexing parting of General Selena, would it?" He appeared po-faced during the whole query yet Valter could detect a sliver of mischief prancing about in the rider's dusky pupils.

"Whatever promoted that idea?" the Moonstone responded succinctly while accumulating his gear. The corners of Yiavotch's mouth twitched ever so slightly.

"No reason, General Valter. I was simply curious."

Valter stared forebodingly at his right-hand man, wordlessly conveying him to hold his tongue on the topic. "Just remember curiosity killed the cat, Yiavotch."

This time, the diligent said wyvern knight's face split into a toothy beam. "Aye, General Valter, but satisfaction brought him back."

* * *

Lightning ripped through the caliginous, ill-begotten sky like a skeleton hand of death while thunder rumbled and roared down on humanity, a wrathful god hurling his displeasure and ire unto the world below. Unnaturally stentorian squalls howled across the gory, tedious battlefield, provoking chills down the spines of the weak-kneed, callow soldiers. The warriors of the Schwarzesherz House had been told to ensnare a woman–one heavily experienced in combat to be precise–yet they never expected their target to retain such adamant fortitude and beset them quite viciously and belligerently. Never in their lifetime had they encountered a woman possessing an astounding level of ferocity, most of their woman were tamed, demure, and docile creatures, trained to submit and serve. The Schwarzesherz soldiers were accustomed to sheep and now, they were facing a mighty she-wolf ill-prepared. Clark realized this prospect at last when he lost another small assemblage of knights to the seething, remorseless mage knight.

"Press onward, men, and fight harder! There's only one of her while an army of us!" he hollered into the wind, assaying to galvanize the morale of his troops.

"But, Lord Clark, she's absolutely ruthless! This storm was evoked by her and her unearthly powers! She's not human!" cried out one nameless fighter amidst the quarrelsome, incited crowd. Clark scowled, wholly irked by the stalemate and the legionnaires' outrageous superstitions regarding the renowned General Selena.

"By the gods, does any one of you have some pride? Can't you see you all are slowly getting beaten by a _mere woman_?" Clark spat out furiously, spittle flying every which way. Some of the soldiers tensed, fervently loathing they were being reminded that fact for the umpteenth time. The concept did not bode well for their already extremely damaged pride. Gleaning this, Clark opt for another but much different course of action, one he learned from his father and knew from past speculations and experiences that this next attempt would not result in default. "I'll tell you what, fine warriors of the illustrious Schwarzesherz House. Whoever captures Dame Selena first can be the first man to have his way with her!"

Thunder clashed portentously and levin sinisterly scintillated the paroxysmal, turbulent sky, the impending tempest evincing its choler and displeasure towards Clark's newest order. Yet no man paid even a slightest attention to the baleful harbinger of the fickle deities Dame Fortune and the Fates. Countless were imbibed by lust, however, the type of lust these men felt was more deleterious than ardent and affectionate. They were not seeking to offer and take, they were craving to seize only for themselves. Suddenly their target, Selena Fluorspar, was no longer just a female they had to ensnare for their commander, Clark Schwarzesherz, but she now became their potential object of pleasure, someone to slake their voracious passion and desire from their aching, bereft bodies. Esprit de corps rejuvenated, the randy soldiers marched forward with more zeal than before.

Selena scoured the approaching army with cool, calculating perception and phlegmatic composition, swiftly contriving another battle stratagem. Albeit she did not want to acknowledge how bleak the situation was rapidly transforming, Selena conceived sooner or later the Schwarzesherz troops would surmount and capture her. Gods know what will transpire to her after that unfavorable predicament.

"Surrender, Dame Selena!" she heard Clark shout haughtily over the din of combat, "You fight well but you are no match for the Schwarzesherz legionnaires!"

_With each passing second the more I understand why Valter detests Clark so much. If he inches closer I could possibly fry him with Bolting—_

"Seeing that I'm still standing and you keep losing more and more of your men I feel there is no reason for me to quit now," she answered back icily, initially small yet pernicious spurts of fire slowly forming in palms of her hands, "after all, I'm just warming up here."

Projecting a full wall of fulminating, consuming fire onto her encroaching adversaries Selena relocated herself while her foe was preoccupied by the lurid, avid flames. She could hear the oppressive, pounding hoof beats of the cavalrymen and other horseback fighters who had escaped the massive conflagration, all charging precisely at her fleeting figure. A strident, enraged neigh of a Pegasus and its rider echoed in her keen ears, blatantly signaling the winged opponent was near and closing in on her. Muttering another Elfire spell under her breath, Selena twisted her torso around to fully unleash the fervid assailment unto her foe. The Pegasus rider was in impeccable range. Raising her arm up mid-way, Selena prepared herself to launch a full-fledge Elfire unto the doomed rider. Yet the opportunity never arrived for another animalistic cry ricocheted through out the truculent vicinity. To her amazement, a wyvern rider appeared out of nowhere and the glaucous wyvern slammed itself brusquely into the Pegasus. Both riders clashed with each other and already it was apparent that the wyvern rider was the victor. In less than ten seconds the wyvern rider had his or her lance impaled into the Pegasus rider's stomach while the wyvern firmly clamped its muzzle around the bleeding Pegasus's neck. Selena squinted to receive a better glimpse of her peculiar ally and instantly recognized the crest on the wyvern rider's armor. She inhaled sharply at the sight of the famous insignia engraved on the warrior's right pauldron, vehemently comprehending the meaning of the wyvern rider's appearance. Her aid was a Grado soldier, but more crucially, a wyvern rider of _Valter_.

"General Selena, are you all right?" called out her supporter, whose voice the mage knight quickly analyzed as masculine, approaching her with the typical nuanced, deadly grace all professional wyvern riders possessed. Selena nodded in reply as the rider's visage came into focus. Solferino tresses artistically framing his swarthy face and lively zinnober eyes teeming with anticipation and wiles, the Fluorspar immediately gleaned this was Ace Wilthrow, the youngest asset to Valter's notorious Legion of Blood, a wyvern regiment composed solely of Valter's most dependable, staunch wyvern warriors. If Ace was here, than the rest of the Legion of Blood was here which meant Valter _had_ to be nearby.

More consecutive screams deriving from goaded wyverns and the sudden yet welcoming appearance of the superlative Legion of Blood confirmed her conjecture, the prominent wyvern warriors precipitating Clark's men. Lances and swords of Grado steel and might hammered themselves into the flesh of the Schwarzesherzs, illimitable rivulets of blood coursing from gaping wounds and onto the freshly stained, sanguinary ground.

"Come and meet your demise!" the young Ace taunted, piercing a mercenary in the eye with his lance, "Stare Death in the eye when General Valter, the Moonstone of Grado, descends upon you!" The proud, reveling tone regarding the said wyvern general in his timbre was irrefutably evident. All the soldiers of the Legion of Blood respected, admired even, their commander and relished every moment when he confronts the enemy with unparalleled delight–for it was quite a treat to witness their foes neurotically quake like a leaf whenever the Moonstone presents himself in battle and has the slaughter truly begin.

As if on cue, a guttural roar rampaged through the skies and every occupant, including Selena, whipped their heads around to discern what beast could feasibly elicit such a monstrous, supernatural noise. Entering the battlefield was an enormous ultramarine two-legged wyvern with beauteous mauve wings that stretched past remarkable lengths. Feral yellow ochre eyes eagerly gazed down at the opposing sides and a lashing serpentine tail swished pell-mell in the air. Its rider, obviously male, was poised and keenly aware, an intimating, dark aura encasing his being. Selena knew without a doubt that the newcomer was Valter and his mount, Slivegio. She could never forget his subtly arrogant yet formidable battle stance, the bloodthirsty, farouche yet august temperament in his mein, nor the mischievous fanfare of his rather eccentric, humorous wyvern. How he majestically carried himself around, his air of panjandrum and impressive panoply was tantamount to a mythological, whimiscal fay. Helmet adorned, lance positioned in a dangerous angle, nigrine cape billowing out solemnly behind him, he was the god of war who had just graced mortals with his supernal, awe-aspiring presence.

His profound, imposing arrival brought imminent triumph for the Grado soldiers while spelling doom and death to the Schwarzesherz fighters.

"Clark Schwarzesherz!" Valter thundered out stolidly albeit Selena could descry the inscrutable venom and umbrage interlaced in his deep, beguiling baritone. "Reveal yourself and let's settle this once and for all. Unless, of course, you want to flee like the dastardly milksop you are and always will be." he added with a sneer.

At first, Selena actually esteemed that Clark would be a craven and run and hide. The nefarious, insidious sensation Valter was emitting was stifling, smoldering, and rife with savage potency that could instigate even the most valiant to head straight for the hills in raw fear and terror. Then, out of the haze, the same niveous stallion emerged and Clark was saddled on top of it. A wicked, mocking chortle escaped Valter's lips.

"Well, well, isn't this a surprise? My dear effete cousin has finally sprouted his manhood."

Boisterous gales of snickers resonated from the Legion of Blood and Selena struggled suppressing a droll twitch deriving from the corners of her mouth. On the other hand, the Schwarzesherz legionnaires were sullen and agitated, grasping their weapons with unbound rage and worth. Clark looked positively fit to be tied.

"Have your gibes and jests while you still can, Valter, but we'll see who has the last laugh once your precious woman is under my thumb!" he snapped back hastily, his soigné visage turning a hideous shade of puce.

Prior Selena could open her mouth and deliver an acerbic retort of what horrific deeds she'll inflict on him once _he's_ under _her _thumb Valter's partly regaled timbre reverberated across the sanguinary downs, washing over her like a bewitching, fulsome curtain of obscurity.

"Careful now, cousin. Play with fire and you'll get burn." Valter's sable eyes flickered towards Selena, a ghost of his trademark smirk grazing his alabaster features as he spoke, as if he knew all too well how easily one could be incinerated by playing with that particular fire. "Or worse, consumed." he added crisply, ethiopian orbs boring squarely into her star sapphire ones, a faint glint of jocularity glimmering in those occult, ambiguous depths.

Selena wondered who was _really_ the fire here, him or her. Given to their past tangents the role could apply to them both.

Clark laughed coldly at his cousin's words, consecutively scoffing at the patent warning raveled in the Moonstone's pragmatic claim. "Ah, but you are forgetting, Valter, that the Schwarzesherzs possess their own brand of fire. Men of the illustrious Schwarzesherz House! Attack at will and kill all the wyvern warriors–expect for Valter, unfortunately. This skirmish shall be a little lesson for him, reminding him of the repercussions when one defies the head of the Schwarzesherz House. And the woman mustn't be harmed either, she's essential if we ever want to bring the oh so fearsome Valter down to his knees."

Evidently, Clark's soldiers found the last sentence particularly amusing, for a collective hush of cachinnations rose from the execrable legionnaires. Consequently, the first soldier who ramified the bout of derisive chortles soon had Valter's spear puncturing his throat, blood dripping sluggishly down his ravaged neck in semblance to a lazy, placid river of a lush forest. Besotted by the brief moment of diversion, he never received the chance to glean the rapid-fire, belligerent onslaught aimed directly at him. Then again, he was no match for the Moonstone of Grado.

No one ever was nor will be.

War horns from both sides officially signaled the onset thus the opposing armies clashed bellicosely against each other, fighting to survive and see another day. There would a victor and a loser, stalemates or ties were inconceivable in these type of circumstances. That was simply the way the outcome had to be.

* * *

As the battle raged on, Selena vaguely pondered how Valter managed to suddenly be by her side, striking every man down in his–and sometimes her–path. He would send a cursory glance in her direction before promptly resuming the butchery of his family's soldiers in his usual volatile zeal. While she beset and snuffed out the sordid enemy with her blazing magic, Selena took the time to assess Valter's ambivalent, arcane behavior. After hearing Clark's assumptions about her and Valter's so-called relationship, the mage knight had to wonder if the pasty, inimical patrician was onto to something when he proclaimed Valter was intrigued with her. At first, she found the entire concept ludicrous, total blasphemy–Valter would never ever view her in the sensuous way Clark had hinted beforehand. Or so she initially esteemed. Now…she wasn't so sure. In fact, she wasn't certain about anything in her life anymore, from her fealty to Vigarde to her introspections regarding Valter. Everything was frenetically twirling out of her control and comprehension. Tragically, life wasn't simple or straightforward anymore.

Sif's strident shriek of detriment shattered her intricate, nonplussed reverie and Selena rapidly inspected her mare's anatomy to glean what on earth had caused her steed to emit such an agonized cry. A telltale arrow protruding from Sif's neck halted her ruminations pronto.

"Oh no…Sif," Selena whispered dolefully, perceiving the wound was fatal and her mount would have no longer than a couple minutes to live. Sif gurgled and tossed her silky jet mane frenziedly about, behaving in a catatonic fashion. The mare bucked slightly and then in one final act of devotion to its rider, sank pitifully to her knees, permitting no harm to befall Selena as it crumpled to the ground. Sobriety permeating her, Selena removed herself from Sif and the dying horse rolled on over to its side as if to assuage the augmenting pain. The once inky pupils of Sif precipitately turned lackluster and subfusc and the glossy, ebony destrier's acedia was enough for Selena to construe Sif had vanished from this world.

"Arrow struck down your horse, wench?"

Relief flooding her senses, Selena was mighty thankful that Valter, of all people, was there when Sif had fallen. He was the only one who apprehended her the most and could offer the consolidation she wholly needed. "Yes," she admitted reluctantly, endeavoring to compress the dolor mingling with the apathy in her voice, "instant death." A pair of potent, muscular arms encompassed her sinewy frame, shrouding her in a protective, impregnable cocoon.

"Come, you shall ride with me on Slivegio," he muttered softly into her ear, his rich, dark timbre brooking no argument. Not like she was going to demur anyway, the notion was more logical and practical to ride with Valter in the skies than risk being captured by one of Clark's men while assailing them on foot. Wordlessly, she followed him to his wyvern and mounted Slivegio and Valter seated himself right behind her. Was it just her or was there a conniving grin on Slivegio's muzzle?

_I think I'm just being delusional, Valter's wyvern wouldn't compose himself in that manner— Do I espy an impish, triumphant gleam in its eyes?_

Lucky for her, Selena did not have to hear Slivegio's rather indiscreet, casual remarks about her and Valter's blossoming liaison and the possible future they might share together. Valter, unfortunately, was coerced into listening to his mount's incessant, temerariously suggestive prattling, which was driving the wyvern knight towards the brink of insanity.

_'Look at you both; all comfy and cozy together like two birds of a feather. Perchance, when this tumult is over, you can acquire some "alone time" with her.'_

Seething, Valter gnashed his teeth conjunctively and jerked the reins back–hard–as a warning to Slivegio to keep his trap shut on the private matter. _God's wounds, I hope that silences him for awhile._

He truly should have known better.

_'Ooooooh, somebody's tetchy. Have Selena ease that beastly frustration with her feminine skills–not that you would object, lover boy.'_

Valter concluded after he finished dealing with his nefandous family he would be transforming Slivegio into a fine pair of exquisite boots.

* * *

At long last, the battle was done and Selena, Valter, and his Legion of Blood reigned supreme. Clark was one of the very few from the Schwarzesherz regiment who managed to survive the chaos and turbulence. "Valter," he spat out acrimoniously, narrowing his dusky eyes onto the said wyvern knight and the mage knight accompanying him. "Ah, couldn't be parted from your beloved doxy?" A levin bolted down from the brewing sky above and hit the ground an inch away from Clark's left foot. Yelping with an alarmingly falsetto, the pompous aristocrat stumbled over his feet to evade the magical assault, shooting death glares at the two smirking Grado soldiers.

"Consider that a reminder that you're not dealing with a lamb here," Selena stated with acidic amenity. Clark noticed in bafflement, that her wicked, fallaciously saccharine smile was tantamount to Valter's typical wolfish, complacent grin. _Tch, they are practically made for each other. He the savage beast, she the malevolent she-demon. _

"You're facing a wolf," Valter inputted amusingly, encircling one arm around Selena's waist under the guise to support her weight between him. "Now, what shall we do with you, my dear cousin? I always wondered how long a man could last being skinned alive. Perhaps you can be our genuine pig and help us out."

"Or I can just fry him until there's not a trace left. Better yet, should I release Thunder and Elfire on him simultaneously?" Selena muttered vindictively, vividly recalling Clark's deflowering decree. Valter's onyx eyes blazed with mirth at her words, an emotion akin to admiration fanning across his pale countenance. The wyvern general appeared like he desired to do nothing more than kiss her soundly on the lips for her morbid suggestion of comeuppance.

"Have my ears deceived me or has the wench developed an aptitude for bloodlust?"

Selena snorted drolly but the bantering smile remained on her face. "In your cousin's case, yes." Chuckling divertingly, Valter leveled his spear at Clark's neck, the butt of the lance grazing his Adam's apple. "But I also want to press charges, Valter. He assaulted a Grado general and he cannot get away unpunished."

Despite his unsavory predicament, Clark sneered at Selena's announcement. "The law can't touch me, Dame Selena. Your precious emperor protects me and all of the occupants of the Schwarzesherz House."

Shaking her head vigorously, Selena interjected, "That's what you esteem. His Imperial Majesty shall dispose justice upon your head–**and** your vile family as well!"

"Oh, really?" jeered Clark, "What makes you believe Emperor Vigarde will heed your claims of indignation since he's no longer the champion of the common people? What makes you credit that he will imprison me and majority of my kin after all the years of prosperity we have granted him and Grado? Given to your liege actions, _milady_ (his voice dripped with vitriolic sarcasm and venom when he uttered the title), I deem that the Silent Emperor will remain silent on the matter."

For his audacity Clark received a massive, scalding flux of Elfire.

"Lies!" hissed Selena, unleashing her torrential wrath onto the immoral noble, "All lies! His Highness would never, _ever_, commit such a—"

"He's right, Selena."

Startled, the said mage knight halted her fiery transactions and whirled her head around, a paroxysmal storm brewing in her mystical woad eyes while her features flushed cerise in truculent rage. "**What**?!" she exclaimed icily, fulminating cerulean orbs preparing to pulverize him where he stood.

Exasperatedly sighing, Valter duly responded, "Don't tell me you have turned a blind eye to the emperor's burgeoning transgressions. Emperor Vigarde cares naught for the security of others and _you know it_, Selena. Ergo, the Schwarzesherzs will be exempt from the law and also because they have contributed greatly to his cause."

Valter shifted his analytical gaze from Selena to Clark, who pitiably was sprawled across the charred ground, a ramification of Selena's frontal assaults. "That's precisely why we must carry out the sentence instead." The sadistic, sinuous smirk graced his lips anon. "And I have just the castigation for you, Clark."

* * *

"What happens now, Valter?"

Cleansing the blood from his hands, Valter glanced up to face Selena. "Even though Clark has been taken care of, Milo will ignore the admonition and definitely won't leave me alone. Knowing him and my kinsfolk they will stop at nothing to ensure I obey his dying request and meet him on his deathbed." He wiped a spare rag over his damp hands, drying them as he spoke. "Since a myriad of the Schwarzesherz soldiers escaped the bedlam they're probably scurrying back to Milo and telling him all this. Which means you shall be dragged into this cumbersome, wretched mess. If you thought Clark was horrid, you have yet to encounter Milo. He makes Clark seem like a bloody saint."

Clark was a mere sparrow compared to the voracious, foul vulture Milo was. Clark was a vain, weak-kneed louse while Milo was diabolical, hard-hearted snake.

As always, Selena's visage was phlegmatic and stoic even as he informed her of the ill-begotten news, her usual practicality and rationale embodied within her resolved demeanor. "So, you are saying we should expect more assailments from your relatives?"

The Moonstone nodded solemnly. "However, there is a way to prevent that," he said cryptically, tipping his lance's point towards his face to inspect the spearhead more efficiently, "and the method isn't going to be pleasant."

Selena cocked an eyebrow, an inquisitive yet dubious expression on her sun-kissed features and she crossed her arms in a contemplating manner. "Pray you, enlighten me on this particular method you speak of."

Valter tilted his head away from her, permitting a curtain of perse and charcoal tresses to obstruct his view. "I shall sojourn to the Schwarzesherz household and have an audience with Milo." As soon as the foreboding statement departed his lips, Selena already began protesting vehemently.

"Nay, Valter! Don't go; that's exactly what he wants!"

The said wyvern general nearly let loose a growl. "And if I stay, can you fathom what will betide once Clark's failure reaches their ears? Milo will simply order more of his men and family members to _persuade_ me, if you will, to traverse back to the Schwarzesherz House for a worthless family reunion! In fact, they'll start targeting you in order to get to me."

Indurated composure slipping, Selena appeared aghast by his statements. "Me? Why on earth would they target me?"

Valter's answer was lucid and incisive. "The same reason that prompted Clark to attempt capturing you, wench."

**"It's quite apparent how he is utterly fascinated in you."**

_That really can't be the reason!_

**"Please, darling Selena, don't tell me you haven't notice the amorous attention my beastly cousin has been bestowing upon you lately? If I wouldn't have known any better I'd say he's enamored with you."**

Inwardly brushing Clark's profound jactations aside, Selena frowned thoughtfully, her mind exigently assaying to concoct other options for Valter, any loopholes to this pernicious conundrum. "Are you truly going to go through with this, Valter?" she inquired softly, staring curiously at his partly ensconced figure. He paused yet only for a short moment, and then definitively told her his decision.

"Yes, I am. I'd rather get this putrid meeting finished with than have to consistently glance over my shoulder to see if my kin has run off with you in shackles or is raucously demanding for me to see Milo in their typical, aggravating panache."

Immediately noting his subtle concern for her well-being, Selena had to smile. "You do realize I can fend for myself, thank you very much." By her rather impudent words, Valter chuckled briefly and promptly turned towards her, a devilish grin dancing on his thin, sinful lips.

"Of course I do but with that sharp tongue of yours, you will have an uncanny knack for evoking trouble."

Unable to resist, Selena allowed an arched simper to slither across her countenance. "And you don't, Valter?"

The notorious smirk widen even further, revealing a fine set of hale albicant teeth which simply generated him to appear even more sinister and predaceous, the farouche gleam coruscating in his smoky sable eyes never fading away into obscurity.

"Touché, wench. Touché."

* * *

"I was beginning to consider the possibility you would never show, Valter."

Suppressing a vitriolic scowl, the said wyvern knight sardonically replied, "Of course not, Milo. I would never miss the opportunity to grace my great-grandfather with my tainted presence." The caustic, embittered tone of his rough, dark timbre was not lost to the head of the Schwarzesherz House who merely frowned.

"Still impertinent as ever," he muttered gruffly, fiddling with his downy, swan-feathered pillows, "why couldn't that trait have been diminished from your incident with Duessel's cursed lance?"

Selena shot Valter a dubious look, already deducing the frictional tension encompassing the decadent yet portentous chamber and all its occupants. Lord Milo of the Schwarzesherz House was surrounded by the majority of his close relatives–however there were some distant ones or members only bonded to him via marriage. The opulent room was quite enormous. Milo's sole daughter, Brooke, flanked his left side, and his last surviving son, Maximillian, positioned himself to his right. Maximillian stood ramrod straight, resembling an alabaster, glacial statue while Brooke fawned and cosseted over her emaciate, dying father, fluffing up his pillows with such painstaking care that obscenely defied all boundaries of father and daughter relations. At first glance, Selena would have been extremely alarmed, horrified even, but Valter adequately prepared her for the all abnormalities and skeletons lurking in the Schwarzesherz closet. The recondite, perverse affair of Milo and his daughter, Brooke, was one of them.

**"Brooke was still a budding young maiden when Milo first took interest her. Even as a babe he had doted upon her like she was a princess. Occasionally he appeared to be more attentive towards Brooke's needs than his wife, Orchid's. However, the fatherly affection escalated into something deeper and soon enough, Milo and Brooke began establishing clandestine trysts all over the manor. She was fourteen at the time and practically half in love with him." **

Selena fixed her analytical gaze back to Brooke as the modest, archaic woman preened over Milo's coarse, canescent tuffs of hair. Evidently, the aberrant love still existed within Brooke Schwarzesherz. A debauched love which eventually drove Orchid, Milo's wife and the mother of Brooke and her two brothers, Maximillian and Christoph, to an untimely, grisly grave. When she caught wind of the scandalous affair, the victimized woman was so distraught and hysterical that insanity eventually clamped its noxious hold over her. Unable to bear the shame of her misfortune, she swiftly stabbed herself in the heart with Milo's hunting dagger.

"There, there, Father," crooned Brooke, brushing a thin, hoary lock away from Milo's weathered, wrinkly face, "don't let that petty half-blood upset you." She sent a hideous gander at Valter which he ignored in transparent boredom.

"Why have you asked for me, Milo?" Valter demanded bluntly, boring his atrous pupils at the bedridden gaffer.

"Address Lord Milo with the proper respect, Valter, and then he'll deem you worthy of a reply," Maximillian interrupted curtly, his umber eyes ablaze at Valter's patent declination of propriety and etiquette. Valter responded with a withering glare that would cause any man to fear for their immortal soul. Maximillian visibly flinch under the Moonstone's scathing, ominous glower.

"Do not test me, Maximillian, for Selena and I already dealt with that averse recreant you call your son."

Summoning all the information Valter told her pertaining his family, Selena tenaciously ruminated to recollect Maximillian's profile and his status in the Schwarzesherz House.

**"There's something you should be aware of about Clark and that is his relations. He's the oldest of four children, his two sisters Felicia and Maria are the middle ones, and his brother Evan is the youngest. Clark's mother is my aunt Penelope and his father is Maximillian, one of Milo's sons and my great uncle."**

**Selena nearly gaped at him, once more aghast to what she just heard. "Wait a minute!" she exclaimed, strenuously grasping at the ghastly knowledge Valter was feeding her, "You're saying Clark's parents are also uncle and niece?!"**

**Valter nodded stiffly. "That is correct."**

Maximillian arched one fine caliginous eyebrow. "Clark, you say? Well, no harm done, I suppose. He was a waste of skin." At his callous words of indifference, Selena stared incredulously at the odious man, esteeming for a moment she misheard him. Yet the nonchalant demeanor of Clark's father only confirmed her how very little he was concerned about his son's well-being.

_Why should I be so stunned, Valter warned me about this type of behavior–and among other heinous transgressions. After all, Milo sentenced Valter's mother to death for rebelling against his wishes so anyone the Schwarzesherzs deem unworthy or a menace to their domain are snuffed out from existence. …God's wounds, I wonder Valter managed to survive all the years eluding death by his own kinsmen._

Supplanting her reverie, Selena cast a sweeping glance across Milo's chambers, meticulously observing the egregious leader's passel of relatives. Due to the household austere tutelage of interbreeding and geneclexis it was easily to spot how remarkably similar all the family members were compared to each other, the resemblances were awfully uncanny. Navy blue tresses, dark umber eyes, skin pale as wax or winter's frost were the typical traits of a Schwarzesherz. With her star sapphire eyes, flaxen hair, and fair skin she stuck out like a sore thumb. Yet Valter was the same way, for he bore the physical features of a Schwarzesherz and an outsider. As Selena examined the licentious wyvern knight closely, she descried that unlike most of the men in the sumptuous quarters, Valter not only acted like a true, imposing warrior but had the appearance of one as well. His long wild mane of perse and nigrine strands, a strong, proud chin, his alabaster visage supporting adroitly chiseled features, fathomless onyx orbs that could be converted into a portending flammeous hue when incited or utterly displeased.

"So is Clark is dead, then?"

An airy feminine voice rippled through her mind, discontinuing Selena's mental inspection of Valter and his flagrant kin. Selena and Valter turned to the female who had spoken and came face-to-face with one of Clark's sisters, Felicia. The second eldest of the four progenies of Maximillian and Penelope, Felicia was bountifully gifted with her mother's irresistible dark beauty and charms. Skin soft and niveous as a dove's feather, rich, luxurious violet blue hair piled into an elegant chignon which shimmered ethereally against the candlelight, twinkling doe-brown eyes that held the infinite power to cause a man go weak in the knees, and voluptuous curves subtly swaying to and fro as if to tease the masculine mind with their wanton methods. Clad in a fitted purpure dirndl of chiffon with gridelin furbelows and fillets entwining her hourglass figure, Felicia Schwarzesherz was a gorgeous belle to behold. She could have easily been mistaken for the divine. However, beneath the thin veneer of glamour and salacious aspects lied a creature with the heart of a spider–parallel to the rest of the execrable family. Selena comprehend this fact all too well.

Valter stared at her coldly, evidently unaffected by his female cousin's breathtaking pulchritude. "What do you think, Felicia?" he questioned, uttering her name like it was pure poison. Felicia blinked owlishly at him, taken aback by his high degree of brusqueness.

"I would like to say you irrefutably killed him, Valter, but you are quite unpredictable," she countered serenely, her delicate decorum never vacillating. "Yet if you did send him off to an early grave, I–_we_–bear no grudge against you. You heard Father, he was becoming useless and a disgrace to us all. I'm sure Portia will be overjoyed to hear the news of his demise. Ever since she discovered Clark was rendezvousing with that domestic harlot she has done naught but pray for his debacle." A wry grin curled itself on Felicia's angelic countenance. "It seems her prayers have been answered."

Wearing his impassive mask on, Valter spared not another gander to his devious cousin and set his sights back onto the languish Milo. Albeit he may have or not noticed the spectacle, Selena did. She acutely witnessed Felicia ogling Valter as if he was some succulent, scrumptious morsel on a platter, her tawny orbs lubricated with sheer lasciviousness. The mage knight felt one hand curled up into a taut, deadly first and quickly unclenched it before anyone glimpsed her brief action of fury. _Perhaps this is Dame Fortune's bizarre, twisted artifice to tell me I haven't been incinerating enough lewd maidens lately. _

"Charming as this quaint reunion is you still have failed to tell me why I am needed here," Valter remarked sarcastically towards Milo, an inimical edge in his rough lilt.

"Address Milo as your liege or 'Lord Milo' and you shall have your answer!" Maximillian retorted wintry, figurative smoke convulsively leaking out of his ears. The famous flammeous glint Selena had consistently espied during her travels with Valter blazed perniciously in the Moonstone's eyes, the unearthly paroxysm whirling erratically in those ethiopian eddies.

"To hell with that rot!" spat Valter, his stony composure slipping to reveal the beast within, "I'm not part of this putrid clan and by my lance I will definitely not acknowledge Milo as 'my liege'!"

Instead of asphyxiating silence engulfing the room,–in which Selena had predicted would betide–a crescendo pandemonium swiftly swathed the lavish vicinity. She barely heard the raucous, bitter enunciations and ramblings of the Schwarzesherzs, there were an overbearing profusion of voices railing and cursing Valter. The disparaging hullabaloo and aspirations seemed to be an innate force in their faculty.

"Ungrateful brute!" screeched Brooke, her waning, blotched face inducing her as an unsightly banshee, "You should have been drowned at birth!" She shook a feeble, gnarled fist at him, posing no threat to the formidable Moonstone of Grado.

Valter paid no heed to her affronts. He just crossed his arms and pretended that she and everyone he loathed down to the fiber of his very being didn't exist.

"I knew you were nothing but refuse, half-blood!" jeered Aunt Penelope, knitting fiercely while boring phantasmic holes into Valter's backside.

**"Aunt Penelope is practically a female version of her husband…"**

Again, Valter thusly ignored the abhorrent barb without batting an eyelash.

"You always contained my silly sister Gilda's audacity and impudence, Valter. You'll meet the same end she did, mark my words!" menaced Edward, brother of Valter's mother, and step-uncle and husband of Elizabeth Schwarzesherz, step-cousin of Valter. He turned to his wife, Elizabeth, and persistently goaded her to join in the profane extravaganza. Elizabeth–"an epitome of the modicum of decent souls within the Schwarzesherz family" as Valter first described her as–shook her head pitifully, avoiding her disdainful husband's disgruntled scrutiny by dramatically burying her head into her tremulous hands. A wave of commiseration washed over Selena, Valter's words remerging inside her brain, triggered by Elizabeth's brief moment of distress.

**"After my mother's death, Edward started scouring for a wife and took a fancy for his step-niece, Elizabeth, daughter of his brother Wallas and step-sister Cassandra. Milo and the council undoubtedly approved of this match, as they always do. Consequently, Edward was a blackguard like you ever saw one and Elizabeth, to put in bluntly, was the sweetest maiden ever to grace the halls of the Schwarzesherz manor. Ergo, Elizabeth has and currently been in an abrasive, overly dominating marriage with Edward. His abusive, callous tactics have reduced her to undiluted obedient, docile woman, a glass doll just waiting to be shattered into incalculable pieces."**

_A glass doll, indeed. The poor girl is simply quaking under his shadows in sheer apprehension– she's so affrighted to displease him._

"As much as I relish this tiny symphony of dudgeon, I am regrettably sorry to interrupt your strident denunciations with more pressing concerns," Valter remarked dryly to his relatives, loud enough for everyone in the chambers to hear him, "had I known how interminably long it would be till I was eventually told why my presence was requested, Selena and I would stopped for a snack hours ago prior to coming here." At him mentioning of her, several morbidly curious faces whirled around in her direction and the Fluorspar could feel countless of scathing, askance eyes pricking the center of her core with their paramount, contemptuous dissection. The prickling sensation vanished rapidly as the unsavory impression arrived, probably because they found her outsider rank not at all thrilling.

"You will get your answers if you first show some proper respect to Lord Milo!" Brooke retorted hotly, her beady, blood-shot eyes aflame. One knobby hand was ostentatiously cosseting Milo's hoary hair, reminding Selena of long hairy legs fondly coaxing the gossamer strands of a spider web.

Delivering his great-aunt a lethal glower, Valter's nigrine orbs momentarily flared a supernal garnet glow before resuming back to their arcane, inky color. He opened his mouth to counterattack Brooke's irascible comment but Selena beat him to it, sensing a bloodbath on the horizon if they didn't get the crux of the matter posthaste.

"We sojourned here to settle whatever Valter's great-grandfather required of him and put the prospect to rest once and for all," Selena began coolly, flanking Valter's left side, "I daresay it wouldn't be so much of a burden for us to skip the niceties and social etiquettes and move straight to business." She cut a pointed scowl to both Brooke and Maximillian who watched her with outright furor and reproach.

"Impudent, cheeky chit!" screeched Brooke, bolting out of her seat in an impressive amount of speed for someone her age, "How dare you speak to us thus?! This is the private matter, an affair reserved only for Schwarzesherzs!"

"Yes, you would know all about affairs." Selena riposted dryly and a scandalous gasp arose not only from Brooke but the rest of the women as well. Never in the history of the Schwarzesherzs was there someone who dared to openly remark about Brooke's unhealthy relationship with her father, much less hurl the fact in her face. A sour, bleak color wreathed Brooke's wrinkly features, causing the gammer to have the appearance of a lump of spoiled porridge. Realizing Brooke was too dumbfounded to speak, Maximillian quickly rushed to his sister's defense.

"Selena, is it?" he said fluidly, his oily voice and haughty, deleterious comportment a semblance to Clark. Now Selena could perceive where Clark received his nefarious nature from.

"Yes, it is," she replied coolly, meeting his scornful gaze unflaggingly. His lips pursed, curling into a thin yet patent sneer.

"As endearing your ardent outburst for my great nephew is, you are obviously unaware of the workings of this household. Due to your—" Pausing, he cast a cursory glance at her military attire, immediately gleaning her prestige, "—_occupation_, you are unfortunately ignorant how different life is governed here."

_Such as marrying kinsfolk left and right mostly without their consent, forbidding exogamy on pain of death, abusing your power, trampling on the rights of others, weaseling out of tight, unsavory quandaries through dastardly, debauched methods when the law finally comes crashing down on your heads, and other transgressions and iniquities that would make any decent person's ears bleed!_

Biting down on her tongue to dompt the scathing repartees, Selena crisply, "Oh, I wouldn't be too certain of that, Maximillian. The Schwarzesherz House is quite notorious, believe it or not."

Valter's great uncle gave her a crocodile's smile. "Try, esteemed, my dear. We are an extremely prominent clan and an irreplaceable asset to His Imperial Majesty. Surely Valter told you all about our accomplishments and bearings."

Paying no heed to the smoldering warning gander Valter was subtly shooting her, the blonde mage knight permitted her tautly drawn mouth to quirked up into a vinegary half-grin, the meretricious alacrity etched on her features belied by the acerbic, fiery sparkle in her lapis lazuli eyes. "Oh, he did more than just inform me of your 'accomplishments and bearings'. He took the liberty to elaborate on a myriad of your…_indiscretions_, to put it mildly."

From her astounding insinuation, Maximillian looked as though he was choking on something unpleasant, turning a hideous shade of cinnabar. Valter, however, possessed the ambivalent, dichromatic mein that he was either craving to wring Selena's neck for willingly immersing herself into his family's gross, contorted lifestyle or laud her for the caustic persiflage of her lashing, disarming tongue she so dexterously wields as a formidable weapon.

Much to the shock of everyone, including Selena and Valter, Milo rose from his bed, disregarding his ill-tempered daughter's fussing and mollycoddling. Shifting his weight and repositioning himself so he could receive a better view of his great-grandson and his traveling companion, the House of the Spider's paterfamilias leveled his hawkish scrutiny onto the two Grado generals.

"So you wish to know why I summoned you to me while I lay dying?" the archaic ruler paraphrased staidly, piercing his cunning discernment mostly on Valter. Taking Valter's smothering silence as a 'yes', he continued. "Due to the present circumstances and my waning health, I am compelled to name my successor. Now, my son and your grandfather, Christoph, would have been an excellent choice yet the gods saw it fit to rend him from this world and welcome them into their paradisiacal home. Unfortunately, many of my kin are regrettably not up to the task of being the next leader of the Schwarzesherzs so I must resort to more drastic measures." Both of Milo's dark umber were directly fixated on the Moonstone, silently conveying for no defiance for what he was about to utter next. Valter answered the unspoken challenge with a tilt of chin and death glare menacing enough to match Milo's. Selena had ominous intuition about this.

"So I decided to name you, Valter, my heir."

All hell broke loose.

"You can't be serious, Father!" Maximillian and Brooke cried out in union, slack-jawed by Milo's disconcerting declaration. A whirligig of hushed murmurs and whispers engulfed the suite, consternation preying upon the flummoxed coterie as they seethed, brooded, or analyzed the contingency unfolding before their very eyes.

"You're actually permitting a half-blood to resume your legacy?!" This ear-grating screech derived from none other than Aunt Penelope. "What about the blemish his mother left on this family? Don't forget that his father was a baseborn, paltry mercenary who I wager wasn't even worth his salt!"

Valter whipped his head around to confront his harpy of an aunt, the farouche flammeous gleam resurfaced in his inscrutable ethiopian orbs. "I dare you to say that again,_ Aunt Penelope_," he hissed, spitting her name like it was venom, "come one, give it another go." His spiteful mood quickly transformed to sadistic and vengeful while he malignly approached Penelope. His steps were slow, calculated, and deliberate as any predator's gait, riveting with a majestic yet deadly grace. To top off his imposing temperament, a devilish smirk graced his arresting features. The same devilish smirk that blatantly conveyed he was up to no good.

"Stand back, you beast!" Penelope warned shrilly, batting her lace-trimmed fan in tantamount to a farmer flourishing a sickle. Valter could have easily wrenched the fan out of her hand, snap her wrist in two, and hurtled her across the room as if she was tiny, disheveled rag doll. Instead, he merely grasped her frail shoulders and tightened his hold over the harridan-esque leptosome. A pitiable whimper escaped Penelope's lips and she feebly writhed in Valter's clutches. Few men tentatively rose to assist the panicked woman yet one feral glower from Valter sent them rapidly retreating back to their seats. Fixing his smoldering gaze onto his aunt, Valter lowered his head to Penelope's height, his mouth near her ear. Suddenly, his lips began moving and were whispering into his aunt's ear. Whatever he was uttering was certainly not pleasant news for all color had drained from Penelope's face and her puckered mouth shaped a perfect 'O'. When Valter withdrew his presence from Penelope and returned to his original position beside Selena, his aunt gripped her fan so tightly her boney knuckles turned paler than her pallid skin. She quivered spasmodically, a low, maudlin wail rimming release while she scuttled back into the miniature crowd, sparing not a single glance towards the triumphant wyvern knight who still wore the notorious smirk on his lips.

"What did you do to her?" demanded Maximillian although his hoarse bass-tone voice possessed less passion and concern for his wife's condition that borderline callous indifference.

"Oh, nothing _too_ dreadful," the Moonstone replied mockingly, "why don't you ask her yourself?"

Sending a nasty scowl at the wyvern general Maximillian looked skeptically at his wife, his caliginous eyes screaming for an explanation. Even her husband's silent, onerous orders could not jar Penelope out her distraught state. She simply shook her head erratically, one hand covering her mouth, muffling a strangled gasp that suspiciously sounded like "Clark". She then erupted into a fit of tears, sobbing so dramatically and artistically that Selena began doubting the authenticity of Penelope's grief.

The mage knight rotated herself to face Valter, the sinuous smirk replaced by an apathetic, thin line. "What on earth did you tell her?" she inquired, condoning Penelope's rampant tirade of bathos and mawkish jeremiads as she spoke.

Devilry glinted in his sable orbs, the ghost of his infamous grin nearly gracing his wan features as he confronted her inquisitive stare. "I told her about Clark's predicament," he explained, humor subtly laced in his velvety baritone.

"Ah, I see."

Instead buried six feet under like many would have assumed, Valter concluded his dastard cousin's punishment would be more fitting if they took him to a tiny village he once terrorized and raped the women there left and right. The townsfolk had Clark's name engraved in their memory and Valter fathomed how much the survivors craved for revenge hence he disposed Clark to the mercy of the villagers who only too eager to relieve Valter and Selena of their unsavory baggage.

**"No need to worry, General Valter. We'll take good care of the chap." one civilian reassured him jocosely, eyeing the imprisoned Clark in the similar manner of a wildcat hungrily watching a doomed, hapless deer. **

**"Aye, I still haven't forgotten what he did to my daughters," grunted another man, flexing his hands in and out. His wife stood behind him, her sullen eyes alight with wild justice. **

**"And neither have I," she murmured scathingly, her grave, wrathful visage promising sheer torture and pain. **

**Valter smirked, delighted in the future outcomes of his cousin's fate. After all, the currish bastard deserved the bleak treatment. Trial by court was a luxury war could not afford and besides, he wanted Clark to suffer under the hands of the very people he tormented and plagued so much without fearing the repercussions. Selena approved of the idea, she was beginning to loathe the Schwarzesherzs just as much as he did. **

**"Have fun with him," Valter remarked divertingly as he took flight with Selena in his arms, leaving Clark to face his dire quandary against a ragtag army of grimy yet vengeful peasants alone. **

**Clark's howls were simply music to his ears. **

"A-_hem_!"

The terse voice of a severely aggravated Milo who wasn't accustomed to be interrupted attracted everyone's undivided attention. Imprisoning them all with his harsh, far-reaching gaze, Milo did not speak until he was fully confident all eyes were on him. The ignominious paterfamilias averted his eyes from the center of the room and returned to Valter.

"I am impressed with your display of ruthlessness. That is one aspect I desire in the future leader of the Schwarzesherz and you executed that part flawlessly. Why—" Milo broke off, disrupted via Penelope's explosive de profundis. Bushy brows furrowing considerably, Milo was fit to be tied. "Will someone shut her up, her cries are driving me senile! If no one silences her then I will!" Instantly deducing the surreal threat underlining his father's irate manifesto, Maximillian hastened to his wife and grudgingly comforted her, assaying to quell her sobs and tears.

"As I was saying," Milo resumed, partly content when Maximillian managed to end Penelope's cri de coeur, "you possess the full potential to follow in my footsteps. I made sure of that."

Scowling, Valter retorted, "Listen, old man, I don't want—" The Moonstone stopped short, allowing Milo's words to sink in. "What the bloody hell do you mean 'I made sure of that'?" His low and foreboding timbre chilled the entire atmosphere as he pierced his great-grandfather with his uncompromising scrutiny.

Lord Milo cocked a small but complacent, nefandous grin, wholly acting like the virulent man who snatched Valter away from his parents and snuffed them out of existence in the blink of an eye. "Delighted that you asked. I was referring to the little butchery you had with some poor unfortunate souls after accidentally wielding Duessel's demoniac lance. You know, the men that everyone deemed either as 'civilians' or as that wyvern lord Glen termed it, 'people who had no intention of fighting'." The gaffer snorted at this. "The emperor and your two former comrade-in-arms were utter fools, so easy to deceive and manipulate. Ergo, the task became much simpler than I had initially anticipated."

Realization dawned over both Grado generals yet Selena was the one who responded first to the astounding disclosure. "You set Valter up," she stated bitterly, voice rife with truculent passion and ire. Fists clenching, she bristled with unbridled wrath and unflagging indignation, sorely tempted to smite this man, no, _monster_, who continued to smile so superciliously as if none of his execrable actions were of consequence. Her dudgeon towards Clark was a mere granule compared to the catastrophic enmity she felt for Milo. Since Balor she had never experienced the desire to kill someone so strongly and vehemently before. However, now she had encountered Milo, nothing else would give her satisfaction of effacing his presence from the world. Just like how he executed everyone who stood in his path or sacrificed for his selfish, wretched goals to preserve his clan's bloodline in such a casual, harsh manner. She might have lashed out at him if a pair of potent, blunt hands hadn't clamped down on her shoulders, steadying her and her raw fulminating fury.

"Easy, wench," she heard Valter whisper to her yet the growl in his words instantly betrayed the rage boiling inside him. He was seething just as she was.

"Enlighten me, Milo," Valter snarled, his steely composure crumbling away while his beastly, dark temper was coming out to play, "I want to know _everything_." Most men would have been terrified to their inner core and rather face Death himself after hearing the portending, deadly tone in Valter's timbre. The grouse promised pain, total annihilation, and death. Consequently, Milo was not one of those men, he reeked of egotism and self-assertiveness.

"After you left us to serve the Grado Imperial Army, I was furious by your damnable insurrection. My ire mounted as you continued to perform well in your service and I nearly went berserk when Emperor Vigarde granted you as one of the Imperial Three generals, naming you 'the Moonstone'. For weeks I arduously compassed a plot to rend you from the army and coerce you in returning to this glorious house. I did not fathom my opportunity would arrive if Duessel, being the fool he is, wasn't carrying that cursed lance of his. Once I caught wind of your unfortunate encounter with the demon sealed inside the spear and how the djinn _changed_ you, I instinctively knew the time was ripe for the picking and catapulted my scheme into action." Milo's lips twitched in amusement, clearly pleased in the next accomplishments he was about to reveal.

"I first ordered several spies to shadow and observe your every move to glean when you would be at your most vulnerable–which is when the remnants of the demon is at its strongest–and easily instigated. Once I had all the information I required, I hired some baseborn, petty mercenaries who were only too eager for a coin to meet you in a remote hamlet that Emperor Vigarde warily sent you to investigate. My mercenaries had disguised themselves as simple men after dispatching the decent folk who would have defended you and thwarted my plans entirely."

An inscrutable impression flickered in Valter's pupils. "Dressed as peasants yet carried the appearance of miscreants," he mused gruffly and Selena felt him tense behind her, "I noticed they weren't innocent as they professed to be, especially when a couple of them beset me right after reciting their little sophistry."

"Which provoked you to fight back, slaughtering every last one of them," Milo added smugly, his raspy voice almost cheery. "Back then, Clark was still of use to me and he adroitly convinced the witnesses of that abysmal village to accuse you of murder and elaborated on the details. You can be surprised how far men are willing to throw away their morals for gold. Desperate people pay."

Selena wasn't sure what enraged her more, the concept that Milo not only manipulated with Valter's life but utterly ruined it or the odious man started laughing coldly, commenting how blind people could be and so easily bought. Closing her eyes to block out the abhorrent image, Selena gritted her teeth restrain the indignation percolating within her soul while his fiendish chortle rang mockingly in her ears.

"You contrived all that so you could have me in your clutches again," growled Valter. Selena could only envision the incense, unearthly luminance flaming in his morel orbs from his rough, insidious baritone.

The laughter fading, Milo reverted back to his grouchy, apathetic self. "Aye, but my crafty stratagem didn't work for even after the exile sentence you holed yourself up in some covert shack even I wasn't able to trace. Then Emperor Vigarde restored you back to your former rank, making all my efforts futile." He frowned at the unfavorable recollection yet waved the insignificant prospect away. "But no matter. You're here now thus you shall lead the Schwarzesherzs when I'm gone."

"**Like hell I will**!" Valter thundered, relinquishing his grip on Selena and began approaching Milo's bed, pure animosity lingering with every wild step. "Are you daft, you bloody codfish, to esteem I'll willingly accept your proposal of leadership to a house I would rather **burn** to the ground than rule?"

The sick, despicable sneer Selena loathed so much curled itself on Milo's lips again. "Forgotten already, my great-grandson? Allow me to refresh your memory: _You belong to me_."

"I beg to differ, Milo."

Without warning, there was a discordant crackle, a bolt of lightning, a blinding flash, and then an ear-splitting scream of agony.

When all trace of magic had precipitately vanished and everyone could see again, Valter already comprehended his great-grandfather's kismet even before lifting his eyes to espy the dastardly old fox. As plain as day laid Milo Schwarzesherz, his motley corpse flatten on the bed and ramrod straight. His erect posture could have easily belied he suffered from an apoplexy but a telltale scorch mark charred into the region of his heart betrayed that misconception. His killer's identity was just as obvious as his coup de grace.

Milo Schwarzesherz had been slain by Selena Fluorspar, doomed by the fatal litany of her Thunder magic and precise, impeccable gesture of her steady hand.

"Selena…?" Valter murmured, staring bewilderedly at the formidable, fuming mage knight whose bewitching azure eyes flashed from fire to frost cyclonically as she singed the aristocratic bevy with her paroxysmal glare. Her defiant, dangerous gaze silently dared any one of the members to attack, to denounce her and the macabre coup she executed.

"Let this be a lesson to all of you," Selena stated grimly, "cross a Grado general and there will be hell to pay."

Albeit Valter craved to be the one who smote Milo, his lips quirked upward in amusement at Selena's intimidating demeanor. Standing tall and adamant, features set, and eyes dancing with icy fire, she looked every bit of the warrior goddess he imagined her as when he was truly acquainted with her on the battlefield. Heretofore the wrathful, ferocious aura encircling her made Selena a tempestuous angel of vengeance who had just rushed to his aid and obliterated the source of all his misery and Gethsemane.

She really was quite a woman.

"Well said, wench." Valter wrapped one arm around Selena's torso, drawing her nigh to his body. "Since there is no point in us staying we'll be departing now. Have a pleasant day." Pleased to have the last say in the situation while Selena had the final act, Valter briskly exited the dreadful chambers, never releasing his possessive grip on Selena's waist.

* * *

"I hope you're not furious at me," Selena said as she sat down beside him. Valter cocked a lazy eyebrow.

"Why would I be?" he inquired.

The blonde mage knight first glanced at his Legion of Blood, the rowdy wyvern riders celebrating their earlier triumph over Clark and his men. A plaintive, morose song rose from the peculiar, content soldiers as they feast on the enemy's provisions:

_"The glories of our blood and state_

_Are shadows, not substantial things,_

_There is no armor against fate,_

_Death lays his icy hands on Kings;_

_Scepter and crown,_

_Must tumble down,_

_And in the dust be equal made,_

_With the poor crooked scythe and spade."_

"As I was saying," Selena commenced, slighting the dirge, "I realized how much you despised Milo so and probably desired to be the one who would end his life."

"Bulls eye," Valter responded matter-of-factly, idly polishing the spearhead of his spear, "Is that all?" She shook her head, subtle yet unflagging resolved etched on her strikingly handsome countenance.

"I came here to explain to you why I unintentionally denied you the right of dispatching the very man who demolished what was precious to you: Your parents, your childhood, your general rank, your life… I just couldn't stand him laughing at his cunning tactics that had cost you of everything you held dear. He thought he could get away with all his vile transgressions and never have fear about the repercussion of his misdeeds."

"But you made sure he received his comeuppance," Valter inputted thusly, securing his efficiently honed and freshly cleaned spear to his back, "personally, I thought your attack was a fine effort. The assailment succeeded and managed to rattle the rest of my kin's foundations." He shifted his profound gaze to her, locking his sable eyes unto her memorizing cerulean ones.

"Yet…that's not what is truly bothering you. What is it?" Selena blinked in astonishment, hardly expecting him to glean the other turmoil currently wreaking havoc in her mind.

"Oh, it's nothing," she replied dismissively, trying hard to focus on the convivial wyvern warriors and straining her ears to intently listen to the next verse of the elegiac song so Valter wouldn't be encourage to pry into her inner troubles.

_"Some men with swords may reap the field,_

_And plant fresh laurels where they kill,_

_But their strong nerves at last must yield,_

_They tame but one another still;_

_Early or late,_

_They stoop to fate,_

_And must give up the murmuring breath,_

_When they, pale captives, creep to death."_

_How apropos… Albeit it's such a shame Valter's great-grandfather couldn't have undergone a similar situation; he seemed perfectly content in inducing others to crawl and beg on the ground for mercy–or death, if their suffering was excruciating enough._

"Selena, if something's bothering you then it isn't 'nothing'," Valter responded dryly, cocking an intrigued eyebrow at her measly attempt to evade his question. "I'm going to extract the answer from you one way or another so you might as well tell me."

Usually Selena would shoot him an arched look and banteringly ask how he would plan to do just that yet the intricate mage knight merely sighed in capitulation, closing her eyes before opening them again to reply.

"After we departed the Schwarzesherz province I realized something, a subtle analogy I share…with Brooke. I noticed despite our backgrounds, past actions, and social nuances, she and I are really not so different." As soon as the admission died from her lips, Valter convulsively whirled his whole body around, his potent, deft hands instantly grasping her wrists, nigrine eyes ablaze as he roughly pulled her closer to him.

"Don't say that. Don't you **ever** say that! You and Brooke are _nothing_ alike." The wyvern knight's voice was low and dangerous, a precarious glint in his pupils.

"But didn't you see how tenaciously loyal she was to Milo, constantly cosseting and fawning over him like he was some cherishable pet instead of the malefactor he truly is! She would have done anything for him, no matter how high the price was. I could see it in her eyes!" Selena protested importunately, fiercely leveling her uncompromising scrutiny with his.

"Just like I am with His Highness," she added softly, refusing to avert her gaze as she utter those gut-wrenching words.

"What do you mean?" Valter demanded inquisitively, relinquishing his binding vice-grip on her forearms.

"I have always been to faithful to Emperor Vigarde, even when he suddenly changed from the man I forever knew him as and levied war against Renais. I disciplined myself to never question his actions, to never demur or openly protest to his countless decrees, no matter how ludicrous and outlandish they were. I am just his assiduous servant, his vassal, and my opinion does not matter." Albeit Valter esteemed he was imagining the aspect, he could have sworn he heard a touch of bitterness furtively entwined with her disquisition.

"But what?" he gently prodded, brushing a stray golden lock away from her cheek–a reflex he suddenly acquired while around her. Selena frowned, a pensive, perturbed expression blooming across her features. Evidently what she was about utter next would probably be deemed as a traitorous.

"After witnessing how awfully staunch Brooke was to Milo I glanced back on my own actions regarding my service to His Imperial Majesty. The man I once sworn myself to is no longer there, he has been replaced by an altogether different person who cares about naught and is acquiescent in achieving his abstruse goals at the expanse of everyone else, even those close and steadfast to him. He sees a foe in practically anyone." She paused, breaking off her ardent rant. Noticing the uncurling of the tensity in her shoulders, Valter realized she had been bottling all this in since the beginning and the indignation and mass complicity of the situation was killing her.

_"The garlands wither on your brow,_

_Then boast no more your mighty deeds;_

_Upon death's purple alter now, _

_See where the victor-victim bleeds,_

_Your heads must come,_

_To the cold tomb,_

_Only the actions of the just_

_Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust." _

"So you are having doubts of where your fealty truly lies now," he answered and Selena nodded wordlessly, her face a mask of shame and pain.

"I know it's utterly horrid and treacherous of me and you're probably going to dispatch me—"

"Why on earth would I do that?"

Startled, Selena could only stare incredulously at him before articulation returned to her tongue. "What do you mean? I am contemplating the notion of swearing off all my vows to Emperor Vigarde and you're going to do nothing about my actions?!"

Smirking, Valter replied, "Selena, I'm not like the other generals. If you were Glen or Duessel I would have probably killed you now yet you are not so all is well. Besides…" Trailing off, he leaned in close until his breath mingled elusively with hers and they were nose-to-nose. "…who said I wasn't going to do nothing?" He heard a sharp intake from Selena and continued, paying their rather torrid proximity no mind.

"I shall disclose on a little secret regarding your precious Emperor Vigarde and reasons behind this sophistic war. When I'm done with my tale, you can decide whether you want to remain faithful to your emperor or sever all ties from him."

Selena gauged at him skeptically, her star sapphire eyes clouded with suspicions and carefully veiled curiosity. "And what will you do if I opt to become a traitor?"

Widening his devious smirk, Valter slid his face to her ear, his fervent breath sending frissions down the mage knight's spine. "Well, you'll just have to wait and see." He withdrew himself, patiently waiting for Selena's answer. "What say you, wench?" A sparkle of regalement scintillated in her captivating orbs and her lips momentarily quirked up in humor before sliding back to their straight, phlegmatic line.

"All right, Valter. What is this 'secret' of yours?"

* * *

_"O that 'twere possible_

_After long grief and pain_

_To find the arms of my true love _

_Round me once again!_

_When I was wont to meet her_

_In the silent woody places_

_By the home that gave me birth,_

_We stood tranced in long embraces_

_Mixed with kisses sweeter sweeter_

_Than anything on earth."_

_**-Maud: A Monodrama,**_ Part II, Lord Alfred Tennyson

* * *

Color Glossary:

Atrous- jet black

Celadon- pale green

Albicant- white

Albugineous- white

Niveous- snowy; white

Morel- black

Lurid- red-yellow

Glaucous- sea-green; grayish blue

Zinnober- chrome green

Solferino- purplish red

Nigrine- black

Puce- brownish-purple; purplish-pink

Jet- black

Woad- blue

Perse- dark blue

Subfusc- a somber, dark or dusky color

Flammeous- flame-colored

Purpure- purple

Gridelin- violet-grey

Ethiopian- black

Cinnabar- deep red or scarlet

(Let me know if I missed any other obscure colors.)

Whew, this chapter was taking awhile to finish. There was so much I wanted to include or elaborated on but nothing goes exactly how you planned, eh? For instance, I was planning on mentioning more of Valter's grandfather, Christoph, and his cousin, Evan, as the other decent souls of the Schwarzesherzs however there never seemed to be an adequate moment to introduce them. In my head, Evan was going to be quite amusing, the stark opposite of the dastard, pusillanimous Clark (which all of you are free to smite, by the way). Again, that notion went down the drain so I concluded to focus heavily on the Electra Complex between Brooke and Milo, poor Elizabeth's fate with her shallow uncle Edward (it's like sticking gentle Ninian with Prince/King John–King Richard the Lionheart's younger brother), and Maximillian and Penelope.

Of course, Milo had to grace the chapter with his nefarious, haughty presence for he is Valter's main antagonist. Speaking of whom, I wager some of you are thinking, "If Milo is so cunning like you say he is then why does he tell Valter he ruined his career when he wants Valter to be his heir and informing Valter that secret won't help him at all?" Ah, that's where Milo's arrogance comes into play. Milo is conceited to the core and an excessively proud man which becomes his undoing. He is so convinced that Valter will heed him even after all those years (remember he is quite accustomed having people obey him and eliminating those who don't without any major hassles) and eventually buckle to his sovereignty. This blinds him from the reality of the circumstances and you know what they say, "Pride cometh before the fall".

Since the final support conversation is complete, that leads us to the epilogue! Excited yet? Curious or crave to murder me where I stand because of the evil cliffhanger (or among other reasons–which wouldn't be the first time)? You can probably estimate when Valter is going to tell Selena but who knows where that will lead them to…? –smiles secretively- Review, critiques–all that jazz–are wholly appreciated however flamers will be strapped to a spike-infested chair while watching Riev's dance recital to "Baby Got Back". I do believe Riev is warming up and Lyon has almost finished polishing the spikes… -smirks- They are so prompt these days.

One more note (suppress the groans, please): Some of you are probably wondering after when I finish this mini story if I'll ever write another Valter/Selena fic. The answer is…OF COURSE! I would never forsake this lovely pairing, it's far too near and dear to my heart for me to never write another story with those two awesome Grado generals falling for each other. As a little gift, I have added five impending Valter/Selena stories I'm planning on writing once I complete all my other stories and some future ones. I'll also have a poll to see which Valter/Selena story gets to go first so check my profile and the poll out if you want to see more of this pairing! If you desire more info of any or all of the stories, PM me and I'll give you the general gist of the story.

Till then, I bid you all adieu!

_:SpeedDemon315:_

P.S. For those who are curious, this is how Slivegio's name is pronounced: Slive-gee-o ('slive' has the 'ive' in 'live'–not like 'ive' in 'five'). It's quite interesting to see how popular Slivegio is gradually becoming; he is quite a riot.


	4. Epilogue:She Was the Sun,He Was the Moon

**My Damned Soul Needs Fire, My Damsel Breaths Fire**

**Summary: **(Support conversations between Valter and Selena) At first, their dialogues were nothing but bouts of wordplay, verbal swords hacking convulsively at each other. Yet as time worn on, they sought out each other's company because only they knew the other straight to the core. (ValterxSelena)

**Epilogue:** _She Was the Sun, He Was the Moon_

**A/N:** This chapter's title derives from the lyrics of HIM's "The Funeral of Hearts". Just an FYI in case you're wondering why I bother with this.

Text:

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

_'Wyvern Speech'_

**Flashback**

Poems/Sonnets:

"Epithalamion" by Edmund Spenser

"Battle-Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe

"They Flee from Me" by Sir Thomas Wyatt

**Disclaimer: Only the Schwarzesherz family belongs to me. If I owned The Sacred Stones both Valter and Caellach would be very pleased and content men with Selena and Amelia amusingly standing beside them. Heh heh heh heh… **

* * *

_"Now al is done; bring home the bride againe,_

_Bring home the triumph of our victory,_

_Bring home with you the glory of her gaine,_

_With joyance bring her and with jollity._

_Never had man more joyfully then this,_

_Whom heaven would heape with blis. _

_Make feast therefore now all this live long day,_

_This day for ever to me holy is."_

**_-Epithalamion,_** Edmund Spenser

* * *

"Mother! Father! Gunhild! We're going to be late!" A young boy with unruly ebony and perse tresses called out impatiently, crossing his arms as three figures emerged from the furnished, splendid adobe and went to join the disgruntled child.

"Kerrigan, if we're going to be anything, it's early," retorted a flaxen haired, onyx-eyed girl who was several years older than Kerrigan, "you _know_ how disorganized some of those pitiable instructors can be."

"**And** incompetent. That's why I badgered the mooncalf Cormag to have you as my apprentice." remarked Kerrigan and Gunhild's father gruffly. He was busy securing the straps of a saddle on top of the back of his ultramarine blue wyvern. "Also, that's precisely why your mother fought to obtain your apprenticeship, Kerrigan." he added off-handedly, his work complete.

"Oh, not all of them are so terrible, Valter." The said wyvern knight turned slightly to face his wife who had just spoken. Her star sapphire eyes scintillated with byzantine knowledge that hardly any could match in caliber. "Some are very devoted in molding Grado back into the formidable empire it was before the war."

Valter grunted, clearly unconvinced. "We could go on for days with this discussion, wench, so I say we make haste and sojourn over to the Grado Keep. If we're lucky we might meet up with Caellach, Amelia, Erin, and Taigā." Both Gunhild and Kerrigan's eyes were alight with enthusiasm, eager to see their friends again.

Selena helped her son Kerrigan mount her destrier while Valter attended to his daughter, Gunhild, who begrudgingly accepted. Kerrigan and Gunhild had always been proud of their heritage, for the fact they were the progenies of Grado's famed generals, the Moonstone and the Fluorspar. Gunhild, the firstborn, chose the path of a wyvern rider while Kerrigan decided anima magic was more of his interest. However, thanks to both their parents' training, Kerrigan was mage with a warrior's build and Gunhild was more aggressive and ferocious than many would expect a female of her age would be. More of the ignorant folk esteemed Gunhild was becoming a mini-version of Valter and Kerrigan was a similar mold to his mother Selena. Notwithstanding a second glance would prove that testament to be quite false. Gunhild did indeed possess her father's vicious fighting tactics yet she inherited her mother's fiery temper and lashing, acidic tongue. As for Kerrigan, he was phlegmatic and displayed Selena's longanimity when the situation demanded it–however he was ruthless and smug as his father and also like the Moonstone, he attracted a bevy of maidens with his dark, alluring duende. Out of them, one was Caellach's daughter Erin (who was very practical and didn't adhere to him like glue) and another was one of Emperor Cormag's daughters, Lydia. The new emperor did his best to discourage her not to become interested in Valter's son but the wyvern lord's attempts were irrefutably futile. Consequently enough, Cormag's eldest, Calvin, harbored a rather vitriolic dudgeon for Gunhild and she to him hence the two young wyvern riders were always ranting off jeers, aspirations, and scathing ripostes when the moment was ripe for the picking.

"Ready to go?" Valter called out to Selena, who nodded in response. The two generals kicked their mounts' sides and their steed immediately took off, Slivegio in the air and Selena's charger on land.

They were on their way to the Grado Keep.

* * *

Noontime approached when they arrived at formidable fortress, Selena and Valter helped their children out of the saddles. To ebb her boredom, Gunhild commenced in singing a song she learned during many of Grado's training sessions.

_"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:_

_He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;_

_He hath loosed the fateful lightening of his terrible swift sword:_

_His truth is marching on."_

"Not **again**," Kerrigan groaned when he heard his fifteen-year-old sister warble the infamous song, "I'm going to hear that song in my sleep if you keep this up." Gunhild simply delivered him a wicked grin before continuing her lyrical tangent.

_"I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;_

_They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;_

_I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring of lamps. _

_His day is marching on."_

Grumbling under his breath, the arcane mage walked away from his older sister only to be ambushed by Caellach's daughter, Erin, who enveloped him into an enormous embrace. However Kerrigan returned the gesture, not minding Erin's endearing antics towards his person. While the two thirteen-year-olds began catching up, Gunhild found someone else–that someone being Calvin–to irk with the song. Valter watched with amusement as his voracious daughter attempt to goad Prince Calvin into an explosive fit of rage with the next verse.

_"I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:_

_'As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;_

_Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,_

_Since God is marching on.'"_

"Shut up, will you!" Prince Calvin shouted vehemently, his swarthy visage darkening with furor. "I don't want to hear that stupid song, especially from **you**!"

"Too bad, so sad," quipped Gunhild mockingly, smirking akin to Valter and then resumed her singing.

_"He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; _

_He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat:_

_Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!_

_Our God is marching on."_

Prince Calvin's smooth, tan features were beginning to resemble an excessively overripe berry; he was producing more hues of vermillion that Valter initially esteemed to be possible. His wife, Selena, seemed to notice the focus of his entertainment and arched both eyebrows at him.

"You shouldn't encourage her so, Valter. One of these days those two will murder each other. Or—" She paused, distracted by her daughter's caroling the very last stanza of the battle song and the near perceivable sight of smoke rocketing out of Calvin's ears.

_"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,_

_With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me: _

_As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,_

_While God is marching on."_

"Oh dear," Selena muttered when Prince Calvin decided enough was enough and lurch forward at Gunhild who simply cackled and eluded his assault, "their behavior reminds you of something, doesn't it?" Frowning, Valter shook his head while Calvin uttered a rude comment to Gunhild, instigating her to lunge out convulsively towards the Grado prince with one fist ready to punch him the nose. Selena smiled mischievously at Valter, lapis lazuli eyes glittering with delivery.

"Gunhild and Prince Calvin are acting just like we did when we first met."

Seeing the truth in his wife's statement, Valter averted his gaze from the two squabbling children to Selena and noticed the wry grin now gracing her lips. "What is it?" he demanded curiously, wondering what she was mulling about.

"Can you imagine if what betided for us eventually went the same way for them?" she insinuated drolly and a growl resonated from Valter's throat.

"I'd be damned before that bloody princeling advances upon my daughter in a romantic sense!" the Moonstone groused, causing Selena to chuckle.

"Oh, Valter," she murmured amusingly as she brushed a wayward navy and charcoal tress out of his nigrine eyes, "you shouldn't worry, Gunhild is only fifteen. Perhaps Prince Calvin will be interested in some other noble maiden, our Gunhild is quite the little minx and Calvin may not be able to handle her spirit."

"Aye, but she has your beauty thus I'm still going to have to chase away her future suitors with my lance and Slivegio snapping at their heels."

Shaking her head in regalement, Selena headed over to converse with Caellach's wife, Amelia the Ammolite, one of the new additions to the Imperial Six. Due to Glen and Riev's death and Duessel's resignation, three vacant spots had to be filled and the newly crowed Emperor Cormag (why he still worked for that mooncalf Valter may never fully comprehend) granted Amelia, Knoll, and his fiancée, Natasha, the rank of a general. He couldn't say much of Knoll and Natasha, he didn't know them very well yet Amelia wasn't a bad choice. Being a great knight she picked up where Duessel left off, surpassing the Obsidian and his militaristic fortes. When they were traveling with the whelp Ephraim, he even taught her a few moves with a lance.

From the recollection of being apart of Ephraim's troupe, Valter inwardly scowled. He always felt working alongside the two Renais brats and their idealistic friends was demeaning to him but not unlike Caellach, he solely joined up with them so he and Selena would be pardoned after the War of the Stones ended. After he told Selena about Vigarde being a mindless puppet and Lyon under the possession of the notorious Demon King, she was silent for awhile. When she finally spoke again, she had come to the conclusion she would do what her liege would want her to do if he was around: Fight to protect Grado and its people and others of Magvel. But she was even more astonished when he said he would accompany her once she severed ties with the faux Emperor Vigarde. She had inquired why he would turn traitor with her and he staidly replied he would simply be bored out of his mind if he didn't have the luxury of her company. Of course, Slivegio snidely insinuated he was in love with her and didn't want let her go but Valter promptly shut the wyvern up prior to the meddling creature could stir up any more problems for him.

His Legion of Blood covered their escape when Prince Lyon and Emperor Vigarde discovered he and Selena went turncoat and consecutively dispatched several regiments of the Grado Imperial Army after them. They were chased into the Jehanna desert, where they stumbled across one startled Caellach and perplexed Amelia.

**"What the bloody hell are you two doing here?" **

**Caellach's brusque, demanding voice cause several birds nearby to scatter, instantaneously taking flight to escape such a raucous noise. Valter could understand why he would be confounded to see them in the barren desert however he noticed Caellach's gaze was partially on his arm encompassed around Selena's waist so he reckoned the other half of the shock was due to that. He tighten the grip on his spear, just in case Caellach assailed them after the astonishment evaporated. **

**"Judging by your exclamation and the tone of your voice, you were not dispatched to kill us," Selena mused stoically. Caellach appeared even more perplexed than he was before. The blonde girl behind him quietly asked him if he knew them and he nodded, introducing the two Grado generals. **

**"The female is General Selena Fluorspar and the wretch behind her is General Valter the Moonstone." he told the young female and Valter narrowed his sable eyes lethally on the hero's form. **

**"I heard that, Caellach," the Moonstone snarled, erstwhile angling his lance that would pierce the said general straight in the heart. In retaliation to this Caellach brandished his silver axe, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet so he was poised for a frontal assault. Notwithstanding, Selena and Amelia halted their transactions by nudging aside their weapons and then subsequently berated them for their hot-headedness. **

**"That's enough, Valter," Selena snapped as she sharpened her icicle stare on him, "they haven't affronted us." **

**"Not yet, wench," Valter retorted under his breath, rolling his eyes at her rebuke. Caellach was no better off, the soldier he overheard the Tiger Eye refer to as Amelia was really busting his chops. **

**"Caellach, you shouldn't attack your comrades so! They are our allies hence you shouldn't treat them so poorly."**

**Valter did his utmost best to compress the laugh threatening to bubble from his throat at the entertaining sight of the petite female who's head barely reached Caellach's chest was shaking her finger at speechless hero. Selena perceived this hence she elbowed him cleanly in the ribs, hissing at him to behave himself. Grunting from the potent impact of her jab, Valter scowled at her yet complied. He would avenge himself later, when they're were all alone and she was currently unaware of his prurient intentions. **

**_Hm, her strong fair neck is looking mighty tempting at the moment._ **

**"General Selena, General Valter," began Amelia, her velveteen voice disrupting his carnal introspections, "it is an honor to meet you both." Mostly accustomed to people saying it was curse to encounter him than an honor, Valter was dubious how to respond. After a second's worth of contemplation, he settled for a smirk and an acknowledgeable head tilt. Selena smiled genially and thanked Amelia, evidently taking a penchant towards Caellach's traveling partner. **

**"So what brings you two here?" Caellach questioned, causing Selena to glance warily over her shoulder at Valter. He could see the query in her brilliant cerulean eyes, asking him whether they should explain their unfortunate quagmire to him and Amelia. Amelia wasn't someone of a crucial position so she was harmless but if Caellach realized they were traitors to Grado he might decided to blot them from existence and attack them outright. Valter nodded slightly to Selena to grant full permission to tell him, repercussions be damned. Wordlessly thanking him, Selena focused her attention back onto the Tiger Eye and Amelia. **

**"We're on the run, Caellach." the mage knight confessed definitively, her cool, collective voice a honed blade slicing through fragile stalks of grass with peerless grace. Her admission startled Caellach and he commenced with another series of questionnaires. **

**"From whom? The whelp Ephraim?" Both he and Selena shook their heads, puzzling the hero general even more. "Okay, then who?" **

**"Danger approaches!" Amelia exclaimed urgently while pointing to the menace behind, preventing Valter or Selena from elaborating on their ambiguous tale. The two fleeing Grado general weren't sure whether to be relieved or not for the distraction unintentionally initiated by Amelia. **

**Turning around to face the impending foe, Valter and Selena instantly descried their opponent even with beige sand mites swirling frenetically all around of the encroaching army and obstructing the vibrant ensign from view. **

**"Ah, hell," cursed Valter, jutting his lance out into the direction of the Grado troops, "those little fish are just asking to be speared!"**

**"Or fried," added Selena thusly, her lips quirking up into a regaled half-smile. In the palm of her right hand a vortex of electricity crackled and chirped jocosely, ready to annihilate those standing in its wielder's path. Valter couldn't help but to crack a sinuous grin at the Fluorspar's intimidating, insurmountable mystique. Then Caellach's outburst of consternation effectively ruined the mood. **

**"What the bloody hell is going on?! Why is _Grado_ coming after us?" **

**Selena took the liberty of answering Caellach's exclamation herself. "Actually, they're coming after _us_. We have committed an unpardonable act." There was a hint of a grim smile slithering across her features when she spoke.**

**Caellach glared darkly at them, askance clouding his castaneous eyes. "Like what?" he inquired suspiciously. Valter could just envision the gears whirling fiercely in his mind as the hero attempted to decipher Selena's cryptic explanation. **

**Unable to wait for the priceless expression that would bloom on Caellach's countenance, Valter transformed his tautly pressed mouth into conniving smirk, uttering the one, ominous word that besmirched both his and Selena's names: "Treason." He still kept the flexuous smirk on his chiseled pallid face. **

**"Wait, wait, _what_?! Why would you two do that, you have nothing to gain if you betray Vigarde." **

**Selena's gaze darkened at Caellach's statement and a maelstrom of fire and frost whirled momentarily in her azure eyes. "We won't achieve anything if we stay with him and Prince Lyon," she explained succinctly, "Not with the condition they're in." **

**Valter noticed she emphasized 'condition' a little too strongly, which Caellach acutely perceived. **

**"Valter, did you by any chance tell her…?" the Tiger Eye trailed off, gauging at the said wyvern knight expectedly. The Moonstone instantly gleaned what Caellach was clandestinely asking him: If he told Selena about the Demon King and his sovereignty over two Grado monarchs. **

**"Yes, I did indeed," Valter answered swiftly, never rending his locked scrutiny on the marching Grado platoons. _Caellach must be gawping like the fish now, trying to apprehend my mad, strange reasoning for disclosing secret to Selena when me, him, and Riev all vowed to keep the Demon King's return to power between ourselves._ The Moonstone couldn't really blame Caellach if he was dumbfounded at all ends, the three of them had comprehended the perils of revealing such an earth-shattering enigma yet…Selena deserved, no, had the right to know about the monsters that lurked behind the painted veil of Grado's government. He couldn't fully articulate his peculiar intuition but after all he had been through with Selena, keeping secrets–especially ones enormous as Prince Lyon's demonic possession–from her just didn't seem right. **

**"We'll explain later," Selena broke in, "right now we have to eliminate the enemy before us." To support her decision Slivegio flapped his wings potently, crouching into a position that permitted him to fight or take flight. Valter noted Amelia starting to rush to their defense out the corner of his eye, however Caellach yanked her back, saying this wasn't their battle. After witnessing Amelia chastise the ambitious general once he a fair assessment what was yet to come. **

**_Let's see if Caellach can handle the rationale of a female who has a tenfold more of an honest streak in her than he does. Traveling and fighting with Selena has given me plenty of experience in that realm._**

**As if on a whim, vivid images of his verbal sparring matches with Selena flooded his mind and he fought to keep the untoward grin down. He couldn't deny he enjoyed those times, it was refreshing change from all the aspirations, canards, and libels the rest of society saw fit to slander him with. **

**"Valter, do you think Caellach will align himself with us? I mean, he has much to lose if he sides with us." Selena barely spoke above a whisper and quickly hurtled her sphere of electricity into the sky and utilizing her powers, instructed the now transformed levin down upon the unsuspecting Grado Imperial Army, sending dozens of soldiers flying into all possible directions. Valter readjusted his grip on his lance, the enemy still too far away for him to impale. **

**"He may or may not. I think all our hopes lay with Amelia–that girl he's been trekking with." **

**The Fluorspar nodded in agreement. "You're right. I noticed how he acts around her; he's much different than he was when I first encountered him." Rotating her head around, Selena's woad colored eyes seized his sable ones with a fiery yet tender power. "Kind of like our first meeting." she added wryly and Valter snorted. **

**"I wouldn't say I'm a different man than I was before, that would be stretching the truth quite a bit." Humor sparkled in the mage knight's sapphire orbs and he wondered what she found so regaling. **

**"Oh, we'll see," she replied, her surreptitious tone intriguing him, "you'll eventually come around, I know it." **

**Right there, Valter was tempted to laugh incredulously at her absurd claim, the concept was so ludicrous, but the urge to do so disperse within him for her words rang some truth. **

**He just didn't want to admit it yet. **

After some serious talking on Amelia's part, Caellach joined arms with them and together, the four of them managed to conquer the Grado regiment and live to fight another day. However, their triumph was short-lived for traversing around in a harsh, oppressive desert began taking its toll on them. Water was scare, their victuals were running dry, Slivegio's strength was starting wan due to the lack of meat (birds of prey could only sustain him for so long), and the Grado Imperial Army continued to hound them down, the exigent desert heat and arid atmosphere doing little to hinder the persistent army's bothersome advances.

As if those quandaries weren't enough, they had the pleasure of bumping into the whelp Ephraim and his 'charming' little band of fighters. Valter used that term quite loosely.

**"Hm, I was expecting their force to a bit more impressive," Valter commented impassionedly to his three trekking partners as they stared dubiously at the diverse bevy. Selena simply frowned while Amelia glanced warily at Caellach who wore an agitated scowl on his countenance. **

**"Lovely, just lovely. We manage to skive away from the wretched Gradans only to run into those blasted, annoying Renais brats." The hero general swore uncouthly as he flourished his axe. Amelia withdrew her blade from its scabbard and positioned the steel sword directly in front of her, steadying herself for the first wave of charging soldiers. A fulminating sphere of infernal fire flared up in the palm of Selena's right hand and Valter had already selected his first prey to skewer. **

**"Do you think they'll spare us?" Amelia queried her voice fraught with trepidation and concern. Caellach shrugged in response. **

**"It's highly doubtful. You might be the luckiest out of us, since you're not a Grado general. Selena might get a clean break too, not many bear a grudge against her. It's Valter and I who will get the axe, so to speak. Pretty much everyone hates us." he explained, finishing his presumption off with a dry chortle. "Isn't that right, Valter?" **

**The said wyvern general's mouth twitched slightly in utter regalement. "Oh yes," he answered jocularly, "men and women alike curse our names." **

**"Oh, quit exaggerating," remarked Selena crisply. She whacked Valter soundly on the arm, inducing the Moonstone's wolfish half-grin to rapidly switch into his notorious trademark smirk. **

**To provoke and stimulate Selena's feisty nature Valter opened his mouth to riposte with a witty sockdolager however the forward motion of the motley posse ceased the fleeing Grado soldiers' colloquy. Sharpening their senses, they remained vigilant, poised and tense for the first rushing onslaught. Much to their constellation, a youth crowned with short, wavy malachite tresses carrying an ornate lance entered their sight instead, accompanied by an equally monarchial male with a bow strapped to his back. As if on an automatic reflex, the diverse troupe under their service fanned out, stepping aside in semblance to dutiful sheep creating a pathway for their shepherd. **

**"Generals of Grado," commenced the aquamarine haired lordling whom Valter recognized to be Ephraim, "I am Prince Ephraim and this Prince Innes. We have heard about your plight—"**

**"Actually," interrupted the genteel archer, the aforementioned Prince Innes, delivering a scathing glare at the Renais prince before he resumed, "what we mean is, we have heard rumors fluttering about your recent departure from Grado." His despisal for them was irrefutably transparent for the supercilious prince surveyed their battle-ready forms with a disdainful eye. Valter was tempted to have a go at him, just see the lordling squeal like a piglet. Consequently he noticed a frisky, smug grin snaking its way on Caellach's features and he perceived what was about to transpire. Smirking to himself, Valter decided to kick back and watch the show, predicting the exchange between Caellach and Innes would definitely be an entertaining one. **

**"Aye, you heard right, princeling," Caellach drawled out, "we left Grado for a holiday. That's right; we decided to spend our well-earned vacation right here, in the middle of the Jehanna desert. Conditions aren't the best but you get a really nice tan." **

**Valter sniggered and Amelia and Selena instantly brought their hands to their mouths to stifle their shocked laughter yet nothing could suppress the unmistakable glint of gaiety scintillating in their cerulean eyes. From Caellach's mocking answer Prince Innes possessed the image of an enraged bull dying to charge blindly at its opponents, his overly coquelicot visage and the way his fingers played with his bow's string exemplifying his proliferating ire. **

**"Caellach, I don't think that was a very smart move," Amelia hissed gingerly, azuline orbs descrying Innes's fuming figure. **

**With an unconcerned shrug, the said hero general remarked plainly, "He had it coming. Besides, you found my comment hilarious." The blonde cavalier sighed in compliance. **

**"Yes, but he doesn't appear too thrilled by your answer," she retorted. Caellach was about to respond yet Innes's voice beat him to it. **

**"I'm being serious here, you Grado dogs!" spat Prince Innes, the heavy, arid atmosphere rending apart from his resentful tenor tantamount to a delicate, slender twain being cleaved in two by an deftly honed axe. Valter felt Selena stiffened against him from the Frelian prince's insult and Amelia reacted similarly. Undaunted via Innes's abrasive barb, the Moonstone merely rolled his eyes wearily while Caellach lowered his silver axe down so he could scratch his arm. **

**"Really now?" the Tiger Eye called out casually and he nonchalantly brushed a whit of dirt away from the lethal blade of his silver axe, "Could have fooled me." Prince Innes cut a menacing glare in Caellach's direction and was about to unleash a string of violent, scalding diatribes upon them yet Valter decided enough was enough and effectively halted Innes's palavering by voicing out his presence. **

**"Seeing you came to converse with us instead of spewing pathetic, half-wit barbs, I highly suggest you cut to the chase and tell us why you're here." he issued stoically, his influential, suave timbre echoing all over the desolate desert. **

**As the situation turned out, it was the whelp Prince Ephraim who responded to his demand. "Just a short while ago, we have discovered Grado has proclaimed you all as traitors and consistently sends men to eliminate you. We share a common enemy now and I speak for everyone—" He paused to frown in a portending manner at Prince Innes and the Frelian prince merely scowled and grumbled in return, "—when I ask the four of you to join us." **

**Prince Ephraim's offer was greeted with absolute silence. Suspicious, cautious ganders darted from each Grado warrior, the exact same query written plain as day across their features as they tried to grasp entailments of such a confounding proposal.**

**"Is this some sort of joke?" Caellach scoffed brusquely, incredulity evident in his tawny eyes. Valter glanced over to Ephraim who shook his head slowly at Caellach's exclamation and the wyvern knight couldn't deduce or glean any shenanigans or sophistry in the Renais prince's temperament. His intentions seemed to be veridical, at the moment. **

**"So…what do we do?" Valter redirected his focus onto Selena. She had brought the unspoken question that had been whizzing through their minds out into the open but made her voice soft and low enough so only the only four of them could hear her. "He has a point, we do share a common foe now Emperor Vigarde and Prince Lyon have mandated for our deaths." **

**Scowling Valter growled, "I don't want to work with that whelp Ephraim or his little band of so-called warriors." To underscore his displeasure and distrust, he sent a fulminating glower over to the aforementioned vanguard. Much to the Moonstone's amazement, Caellach nodded at him in utter consonance. **

**"For once, I concur with Valter. They're fighting some foolish, ridiculous cause that will probably end in tears. I'm not going to sacrifice my life for something I don't want be a part of." **

**"But if we refuse their offer, we could possibly die anyway, Caellach," demurred Amelia. The three Grado general conceived she spoke the truth for neither of them contradicted her statement. Grado's military and monarchs were starving for their blood and deaths, the Grado Imperial Army zealously nipping at their heels like the Demon King himself was pursuing them. Their willpower for preservation and the whimsical mechanisms of chance were the only entities that kelp them alive for the time being. Dame Fortune was a fickle mistress and she could easily turn against them as she could aid them. **

**Evincing approbation to Amelia's rationale, Selena mused, "She's right. It's only a matter of time before Grado dispatches enough troops to slay us all. Siding with Prince Ephraim might be the only option we have left." **

**Both the Moonstone and the Tiger Eye exchanged inscrutable glances, wordlessly conveying to each other through the thus, simple impressions flickering in their eyes. Valter, akin to Caellach, detested the notion he would have to proffer his lance to Ephraim and his ragtag troupe's frivolous, impractical goal. Yet the Amelia lass mentioned the one fact that would spell doom for them all if they rejected Ephraim's bargain. Sooner or later, they would fall to the Grado Imperial Army and if they weren't killed outright, they would be dragged back to the Grado Keep, paraded in front of everyone like dancing bears. Valter refused such a humiliation to betide him and he conceived Caellach would feel the same. **

**As for Selena…he'll _slaughter_ anyone who dared to coerce that misfortune on her. The world would be unpleasantly different–and completely boring–without her and he wouldn't have his verbal sparring partner to engage with in of a battle of wits. Caellach could comprehend this mad but essential concept; given to his actions towards Amelia, the venturesome hero probably wanted to spare the young cavalier from such a dismal fate. Valter never thought he would have lived to see the day Caellach shed some serious devotion and affinity for a female but then again neither did he. Overtime, he regarded Selena as a true companion and perhaps saw her more than that. **

**_Slivegio would have a festival he caught that._ **

**Tilting his head to send the pellucid message to Caellach, who responded with a sober nod at him, Valter hoped they had decided correctly and would not rue their choice later on.**

**"Here's what we're going do," Caellach began, "we're going to accept their offer." **

**Noticing the victorious expressions starting to awash over Amelia and Selena's visages, Valter swiftly added, "But we shall ask them to grant us clemency if they win the war and defeat the Demon King." Amelia cocked her head in perplexity while Selena's lapis lazuli orbs gleamed with sheer comprehension.**

**Turning to the nonplussed Amelia, she explained, "Since Grado has committed many heinous and unforgivable deeds lately and Gradans have been cursed and loathed by other countries and their denizens, a reprieve is exactly what we need if we survive this war and its aftermath. There will always be those who want to take their rage and indignation on any Gradans they set their sights on." **

**Profundity blooming on the flaxen haired cavalier from Selena's concise explanation, Amelia looked back at Caellach. "Do you think they'll grant our demands?" she questioned thusly, hope sparkling in her azuline orbs for the first time. The said hero general shot her one of his frolicsome, consoling grin. **

**"If they need our caliber then they certainly will," he assured her. **

**As he secured his grasp around the Fluorspar's torso and catching whiff of her piquant, earthly incense, Valter sincerely hoped there was some actuality in Caellach's words. **

In the end, there had been. They were accepted into Ephraim's regiment and with grudging steps they slowly became part of the diverse team, so to speak. Most of the fighters avoided like they contained the plague or some other noxious malady but that never bothered him. He was used to be shunned, ostracized merely because of who he was. Despite the degrees of dubiety and wariness from the majority of the platoon, Selena fared just fine through it all and slighted all the unsavory comments jabbed at her. Upon arrival, she and Amelia were immediate companions, Valter rarely spotted them apart. He suspected Selena saw Amelia not only as a compatriot and fellow comrade-in-arms but also as the younger sister she never had. Amelia went the same way; she was always looking up to Selena as if the mage knight was her older sister and idol.

Consequently, Valter ended up in Caellach's company frequently. The first couple of discussions were extremely awkward, permeating with silence and staring contests. Finally, after they broke through the ice and singing glares, they swapped information about each other and much to the Moonstone's intrigue, Caellach possessed the identical taste for battling and wenching. With this, they gradually moved from acquaintances to associates–not that they would admit the prospect out loud.

So many onsets and bedlams later, they had at last reached Darkling Woods, where the Demon King had cached himself in. Unfortunately, he, Selena, and Caellach came across one person Valter rather he didn't have to meet again.

**"Now, what do I have here? Caellach, Valter, Selena, what do you think you're doing?" Riev chided mockingly while wagging a gnarled finger at the said generals, enthralled by his peers' confrontation. "I would never esteem you three would follow Duessel's example and betray Grado." **

**Contempt for the twisted, vexing pontiff churning wildly in his blood, Valter angled his spear at Riev, ominously saying, "Don't play dumb with us, Riev, you were well aware of our defection." God's wounds, how he couldn't wait to kill that putrid bishop!**

**Cackling, the Blood Beryl shifted his attention onto Valter, soaking in his subtle gestures towards Selena and the killer instinct emanating from his very being. "Valter, I thought you craved for incessant tumult, a war without an end, an outlet to feed the demon inhabits you and prevent the creature from fully ravaging your mind. Have you gone madder than you already are to be acquiescent in giving such a temptation up for _her_ (he jabbed a thumb crudely at Selena)? What can she feasibly accomplish that will dompt your demon and slake your appetite? What power does she possess that can save you from the darkness lurking in the corners of your mind?" taunted Riev, his toothy simper repulsive and malicious. **

**"_She_ can scorch your spiny arse all the way to the netherworlds and back!" retorted Selena wintry, cerulean eyes aflame with fervid, simmering choler. **

**Riev fleered at her, apparently finding her remark regaling. "Ah, I see her formidable, indomitable spirit is what captivated you. Always liked them feisty, eh, Valter?" **

**Prior Valter or Selena could either lash out with a scathing reply or smite him where he stood Riev averted his attention away from them and consecutively focused into Caellach, giving him the selfsame mocking speech Valter just heard. Amelia eventually rode up to Caellach's side and pointed her spear dangerously at the sallow, putrescent bishop which evoked a deranged laugh out of him. **

**All of a sudden, the jeering luster in Riev's beady pupils evaporated and he donned a nefarious, malefic mein, ferruginous robes flapping latently in the cool breeze as he leveled his baleful, methodical scrutiny upon the four Grado legionnaires. "Yet I am deeply curious in how you two will fare once you witness your loves vanish completely from this world." Cackling satanically like a warped, malignant being he was, the Blood Beryl called forth his light magic and proceeded to unleash his celestial sorcery at the flaxen haired females who both unwittingly held the hearts of two infamous Grado generals in the palm of their hand.**

**A beastly, ferocious war cry reverberating from his gullet, Valter launched his spear flawlessly at the malevolent pontiff. Subsequently, his vision became engulfed by a searing, blinding luminance and a scream of sheer agony flooded his hearing. When all was said and done, Valter discovered himself face-to-face with the sanguinary, mangled cadaver of the Blood Beryl. Caellach's tomahawk was embedded into the clergyman's skull while his spear had punctured Reiv's heart and was projecting out of his back. Amelia had her javelin buried firmly into his belly and fatal, horrific burns swathed Riev in a ruddy, crusty pall. From this four-pronged assailment the deliver of the coup de grace was practically impossible to assess. Slender, rubious streamlets coursed through the terracotta fabric of Reiv's rather lofty pallium, imbuing the sullied and torn robes. Sunken, lackluster eyes resembling glossy, lubricated stones nearly popped out of their sockets, Riev's carcass laid in a grisly pool of his own blood, his ghastly dreams for mankind's enslavement dying along with him. **

**Sighs of relief escaped the four comrades and they exchanged glances to survey the injuries inflicted on them. As Caellach and Amelia attended each other, Valter shot a diligent inspection over Selena's form but she waved his attempt away. **

**"I'm positively fine, Valter. That despicable cur and his Divine didn't have chance against me and my Elfire." Her lapis lazuli orbs then proceeded to scan his armored physique, tenaciously searching for any damage. **

**Chuckling at her actions, Valter narrowed the gap existing between and wrapped his fingers around her proud chin, tilting her gaze upward so their eyes met. Selena unconsciously scouted closer to him, heightening the proximity and causing their bodies to only be an inch apart. **

**"You don't need to worry about me, Selena. The old codfish couldn't land a hit on me even if I was blindfold, barefooted, and had both my hands and feet bond together." Rolling her eyes, the said mage knight shoved Valter's chest half-heartedly.**

**"I should have expected such an arrogant response from you," she commented coolly yet Valter detected a faint spark of amusement in her azure eyes. Smirking devilishly, Valter encircled his arms around Selena, ensnaring the lady general in a restricting enfoldment. "Valter, what the bloody hell—" **

**"Zip it, wench. I have something to say." Selena's irritation melted away by the staidness in his tone and she nodded slowly, tentative curiosity etched on her sun-kissed features. The Moonstone brought the Fluorspar up against him, his mouth next to her ear. The tension brewing betwixt them was so frictional and smoldering it simulated Selena's heart to pulsate a thousand times harder that its normal rate. She gazed intently at Valter, waiting with fierce anticipation what he would utter next. **

**"You're a peculiar, intricate woman, Selena. Stubborn as hell and so bloody infuriating that it drives me insane half the time." **

**"And you're a condescending, sardonic ass!" she fired back, inducing a slight roguish grin from the wyvern knight, for he perceived she was only bantering. **

**"Despite all that, you are the most incredible woman I have ever encountered in my lifetime. So…" he paused, mentally preparing himself for the most baffling, outrageous deed he was about to do. Slivegio's sly encouragement of _'ask her, ask her; you squandered enough time just leering and chatting with her!'_ did not help one whit.**

**"...Selena, will you marry me?" Valter finally voiced out, sealing his fate with that deadly, life-altering question. He didn't know how or why he came to such a profound decision to give his life and heart to Selena but he fathomed after when this blasted war ended with the Demon King's defeat, he, the notorious, ruthless Moonstone, refused to be parted from his intrepid Selena. She did so much for his rotten soul–he'd be an utter fool to walk away from such an amazing, special creature. **

**Staring memorizing into his sable eyes, a stunned–yet pleasantly so–Selena appeared as if he just granted all her dreams and wishes true. Much to his own shock, she pulled his head to her and kissed him passionately, raw joy and rapture expressed in the fervent, searing osculation. **

**"Yes," breathed Selena when their lips broke away, "oh, by the gods, I will." **

**Her jubilant answer instigated an _'A-ha! Success!'_ from Slivegio and a genuine smile to grace Valter's alabaster face. He cupped one side of Selena's visage, marveling how this warrior goddess, this angel of vengeance who banished the ghosts of his deplorable past, stood adamant by his side and strenuously engaged his execrable kinsfolk with her razor-sharp tongue and magical prowess, and vanquished the potency of the demon that lurked inside of him, was finally his to love and cherish. **

**_'Hey, Valter, there is a covert grove nearby where no one will be able to see–or hear–even from this point. You can take Selena there and commence the mating. I'll stand guard so there won't be any disturbances from the outside.'_**

**For once, Slivegio actually had an ingenious idea.**

"—how you like that, you pompous, insufferable ass of a prince!"

Gunhild's enraged voice interrupted the Moonstone's retrospections and he espied his plucky daughter tackling Prince Calvin and wrestling him into a fairly painful headlock. Judging by the ugly scowl on the Crown Prince of Grado's countenance, he was ready to throw away the last, waning threads of propriety and engage in some unfavorable tactics that his mother, former Frelian princess Tana and present Empress of Grado, would die of a heart attack if she caught him doing so.

"I hope they simmer down when they get older," Selena commented offhandedly, shaking her head at Gunhild and Calvin's antics, "I'm going to interfere, this is starting to get ridiculous."

Quick as a cat, Valter grabbed Selena's arm and drew her back to him. "No, let them handle this on their own. It'll be good for them. Besides," he paused briefly to place one hand on her stomach, perceiving the tiny, budding life he and Selena created together, "I don't want any unnecessary stress to befall you and the infant."

His wife laughed but nodded comprehensively. "Fine, you win this round. Just don't think you can always pull the baby card on me." she warned him mockingly. Flashing Selena his trademark smirk he fathomed she secretly loved, Valter wrapped his around the mage knight's waist and rested his chin her head.

"As long you don't pull the baby card on me every time you are about to incinerate me with a bombardment of fire or shoot a lightning bolt at me when you merge into what they call 'mood swings'."

Scoffing, Selena playfully punched him in the arm. "I don't have mood swings!" This earned her another snicker from her husband. "Oh, stow it, you rascal! I'm going to smite you later!"

Valter just continued to chortle, sensing their next child would probably be a lot like the wonderful woman in his arms, peculiarities and all. Selena estimated she was spawning another Valter and the progeny would pop out of her with his sinuous smirk on its cherubic face.

"Valter, this isn't going to be our last child, am I correct?"

Selena felt the warm breath of the said man fanning against her ear, his wolfish grin practically audible. "What do you think, wench?" he whispered huskily into her ear, sending a ripple of frissions down her spine. Grinning flexuously, Selena turned around his embrace and cocked her head mischievously at him, her star sapphire eyes scintillating with devilry.

"I thought so, Valter."

**THE END

* * *

**

_"Thanked be Fortune it hath been otherwise,_

_Twenty times better; but once is special_

_In thin array, after a pleasant guise,_

_When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,_

_And she me caught in her arms long and small, _

_And therewith all sweetly did me kiss_

_And softly said, 'Dear heart, how like you this?'"_

**-_They Flee from Me_,** Sir Thomas Wyatt

* * *

Color Glossary:

Perse- dark blue

Nigrine- black

Castaneous- chestnut-colored

Woad- blue

Coquelicot- bright red, poppy red

Azuline- blue

Ferruginous- rust colored

Rubious- ruby colored

(Let me know if I missed any other obscure colors.)

A-ha, I have completed the epilogue of Valter and Selena! Huzzah! I esteem I probably stunned a couple readers out there with my grand concept of them getting married and raising a family. How many you actually saw that coming?

This part took a little longer than I wanted yet the flashbacks at to be parallel to similar flashbacks back in **The Beauty of Us Two**, only in Valter's and Selena's point of view. I had to mention the same events but describing them in a completely different way. I despise to make you readers feel cheated, especially after all that waiting and only to read the exact same text from the flashbacks of **The Beauty of Us Two** but with a few tweaks here and there. Only the dialogue was meant to be kept the same, kept everything parallel.

Gunhild's name means 'war, battle' in Norwegian (definitely apropos for a child of two fierce generals, especially Valter) and Kerrigan derives from a character in an absolute favorite novel and comic series of mine, _Lords of Avalon: Sword of Darkness_. Kerrigan, one of the main characters, reminds me so much of Valter and in the comic series, the resemblance is quite uncanny. If you look at my avatar, that is issue three, the very issue that attracted my attention. My eyes beheld an ebony-haired man riding on top of an emerald dragon with a blonde woman in the creature's talons. My first thought was this: _Holy cow, IT'S VALTER AND SELENA!_ Hence, my obsession for these comics instantly drove me to read the novel (for I simply couldn't wait three months for the last three issues to find out what happens next). I even got two of my friends (some of you might know one of them: lockheedelektra. She wrote a Valter/Selena one-shot for my FE/TSS challenge.) hooked to the series (I also converted lockheedelektra and the other comrade into Valter fans…however the other friend subsequently became a Valter fangirl). So if you enjoy Valter, fantasy, the legend of King Author and Camelot, Celtic references, bits of time-traveling, humor, etc, I highly suggest you read _Sword of Darkness_, both the book and the comic series.

Anyway, back to business! I would like to thank everyone for sticking with me till the very end of this story and here's a giant thank-you for those who reviewed throughout the entire story: Umbrielle, Wii Master, Skippy Soggy and Womble, Ralf Jones, ice-kestrel9, Sye216, Sir Gar the Bold, Paru-sama, ashelia-chan, and the one anonymous reviewer I wish I could acknowledge like the rest.

So now that we reached the end (I know, I know, so depressing) you can review, critic, favorite, etc however flamers shall be handled via a hyperactive Riev who just drank a barrel of espresso and will break dance to "White and Nerdy"–which he claims embodies him so much. I'm almost inclined to concur with him. Also, spread the Beauty and the Beast shipping (Valter/Selena) around, this pairing must rule the Fire Emblem fandom!

FYI, I have a poll up to decided my next Sacred Stones story so if you're at all curious, check it out (read the story summaries on my profile first).

Till we meet again, adieu!

_:SpeedDemon315:_


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